Background Data/Abstract :

By mid-century, the world population will surpass 9 billion people, meaning

higher demand for available food, water, arable land and environmental
impacts. Food security occurs when all people are able to access enough safe and
nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life, in ways the planet can
sustain into the future. However, food security faces a number of challenges across
both production and consumption which research will be essential to solve.

A growing population means more mouths to feed. The expanding global population
is getting wealthier, and richer people tend to eat more and demand food that is
resource intensive to produce, particularly meat and dairy.

Food safety issues, nutrition deficiencies, postharvest losses, regulation

inconsistencies and consumer attitudes are all striking challenges which must be met
in maintaining food security and sustainability. Possible solutions include
advancements in food processing technologies, nanotechnology, innovative food
formulations and the use of genomic approaches manifested in examples such as
alternative protein sources, insect flour, nutrigenomics, 3D food printing, biomimicry,
food engineering and merging technology. International organizations like the
International Union of Food Science and Technology also play important roles in
securing the world’s food supplies by providing expertise through their respective
country memberships. The present review addresses the food science and
technology roles in meeting current challenges and investigates possible solutions to
feed the world in the near future.

KEYWORDS:
Food & Nutrition Security

Food Sustainability Food Science

Food Technology Emerging Technology

 Rationale
After decades of steady decline, the number of people who suffer from hunger – as
measured by the prevalence of undernourishment – began to slowly increase again in 2015.
Current estimates show that nearly 690 million people are hungry, or 8.9 percent of the
world population – up by 10 million people in one year and by nearly 60 million in five
years.

A growing population means more mouths to feed. The expanding global population is
getting wealthier, and richer people tend to eat more and demand food that is resource
intensive to produce, particularly meat and dairy.

The world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. If recent trends continue, the
number of people affected by hunger would surpass 840 million by 2030.

According to the World Food Programme, 135 million suffer from acute hunger largely due
to man-made conflicts, climate change and economic downturns. The COVID-19 pandemic
could now double that number, putting an additional 130 million people at risk of suffering
acute hunger by the end of 2020.

With more than a quarter of a billion people potentially at the brink of starvation, swift
action needs to be taken to provide food and humanitarian relief to the most at-risk regions.

At the same time, a profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if
we are to nourish the more than 690 million people who are hungry today – and the
additional 2 billion people the world will have by 2050. Increasing agricultural productivity
and sustainable food production are crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger & assure
good health.
Objectives

Food production is ultimately dependent on other ecosystem services so it is essential that

these are maintained. If food demand continues to grow as projected, by 2050 we would
need 120% more water, 42% more cropland, lose 14% more forest, and produce 77% more
GHG emissions. Even with yield gap closure through SI, we would still need 56% more
water,
5% more cropland, lose 8% more forest and produce 42% more GHG emissions
(reference ). It is clear that we will need to use every technology available, alongside best
practice farming to sustainably increase production, but this has to be accompanied by
changes to food demand including measures on both consumption and waste.

By mid-century, the world population will surpass 9 billion people, meaning higher demand
for available food, water, arable land and environmental impacts.

• Food safety issues, nutrition deficiencies, postharvest losses, regulation

inconsistencies and consumer attitudes are all striking challenges which must be
met in maintaining food security and sustainability. Possible solutions include
advancements in food processing technologies, nanotechnology, innovative food
formulations and the use of genomic approaches manifested in examples such as
alternative protein sources, insect flour, nutrigenomic 3D food printing,
biomimicry, food engineering and merging technology. International
organizations like the International Union of Food Science and Technology also
play important roles in securing the world's food supplies by providing expertise
through their respective country memberships. The present review addresses the
food science and technology roles in meeting current challenges and investigates
possible solutions to feed the world in the near future.

The objective of this review is to discuss the current challenges and/or opportunities in
food/nutrition security and food sustainability while maintaining the food supply chain.
 Challenges
Currently, the demand of increased food, feed and fiber sources for feeding the future is a
major concern. The ability to expand and keep a sustainable global agri-food system to
meet these demands can be severely limited by various risks and challenges, some of
which are discussed below.

• Increasing Global Population

Since 2000, the global population has increased by approximately 2% every year, reaching a
total of 7.3 billion in 2014 (The World Bank 2016). By 2050, the world population is
projected to reach 9.7 billion (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
2015). The continuous growth of global population will make a significant impact on the
environment, which in turn further affects the capacity for food production directly via

changes in land availability and suitability for agriculture.

• Impact: Climate Change

Climate change refers to raising atmospheric temperatures, elevated carbon dioxide levels
and precipitation changes, which will all affect agriculture and food production (FAO 2009),
causing draught and increased temperature extremes in many food production areas.
Central to all climate predictions is the accuracy and precision of quantifying climate
sensitivity.

• Potable Water shortage

Water scarcity is becoming a more prominent issue due to its heavy usage for domestic,
agriculture, industry and other economic activities in reversing poverty and food security
(United Nations 2014). As an indication of the intensive use of water, consider that 3500
litres of water is required to produce 1 kilo of rice, 15,000 litres of water is required in
farming to produce 1 kilo of beef and 140 litres of water is required to produce 1 cup of
coffee (United Nations 2014). Over the past century, water usage is growing at more than
twice the rate of population increase. Geographically, water is unevenly distributed globally
and a large amount is being wasted, polluted and unsustainably managed (FAO 2009). It was
reported that approximately one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas of water
scarcity and approximately another quarter of the world’s population experience water
shortage.

• Loss of arable Land, Urbanization

Loss of arable land and urbanization are correlated with an increase in the global population
(PAI 2011). The demand for more food production requires additional land reserves to be
converted to arable land. This is not always desirable due to unevenly distributed
development which may encounter lack of access and infrastructure for limited usage and
important ecological functions such as biodiversity.

• Food waste & Post harvest losses

Every year, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted globally throughout the
supply chain, i.e. agricultural practices, postharvest handling and storage, processing,
distribution and during food preparation (FWF 2103). This totals to over one-third of the
food produced worldwide (Scott-Thomas 2013; United Nations 2014; FAO 2015); meanwhile,
over 870 million people go hungry every day (FAO 2016).

Methods To achieve
The Goal
• Acceptance of Technologies
There is a continuous need to innovate and advance current technology to meet the
demands of increasing food security, sustainability and the food supply chain. Over the past
century, genetically modified organisms generated heated debates on its safety,

regulation and ethical practice.

 • Current & Future Technology
Food processing and technology are essential in transforming food to forms that have
elongated shelf life, improved functional properties, desired nutritional properties and
higher quality. Often in the developing nations, a shortage of food supplies is due to the
inability to store food until the next harvest season (Mercer 2008). The reliance of importing
food greatly affects a country’s economy.

• Food Processing : microwave vacuum drying

• Nanotechnology in the agri food area.
• Food safety Technology
• Protein Utilization
• Multicomponent solution
• Potential future direction
 Conclusion
The increase in global population will demand increased food supply, fresh water and arable
land, thereby contributing to significant environmental impacts. In addition, food safety
concerns, nutrition deficiencies, postharvest losses, issues related to policy and regulations
and consumer attitudes are prominent challenges. Despite these concerns for the future,
the continuous push for research and technological advancements must continue if we are
to successfully address global food security and sustainability issues.

References

• Agriculture and Consumer Protection. 2016. Protein source for the animal feed
industry [Internet].
• Barretto AGOP, Berndes G, Sparovek G, Wirsenius S. 2013. Agricultural intensification
in Brazil and its effects on land-use patterns: an analysis of the 1975– 2006 period.
• Online study website Chegg
• Borowitz A. 2015. Scientists: earth endangered by new strain of fact-resistant
humans [Internet]. The New Yorker; [cited 2016 Jan 19].
• Burke M, Dykema J, Lobell DB, Miguel E, Satyanath S. 2015.
• CBC. 2013. Flour made with insects wins $1M for McGill team [Internet]. CBC News;
[cited 2016 Jan 18.