Abstract
Eliminating both overt and hidden hunger is at the core of the global food and nutrition security agenda. Yet, the collective state of nutrition security at the population level is not known. Here we quantify food-based availability of 11 essential nutrients for 156 countries using a food production–consumption–nutrition model, followed by assessment of the nutrient availability status as a ratio of recommended intake. For the baseline year 2017, global per capita availability was adequate for calorie and protein but in severe deficit for vitamin A and calcium (intake ratios, <0.60, where 1.0 is adequate) and moderate deficit for vitamin B12 (intake ratio, 0.76). At the country level, more than half of the 156 countries were in various degrees of deficit for all nine micronutrients. Disparities across regions or countries were enormous. We explore intervention strategies from an agriculture–food system perspective and discuss the daunting challenges of addressing nutrition security broadly.
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Data availability
All data needed to evaluate the conclusions of this study are publicly available in the manuscript or its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper. The dataset of food production for 156 countries is available from FAO-FBS (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home). The food nutrient composition data are available from the well-established US Department of Agriculture databases (https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/). The dataset of food loss/waste parameters, human-edible fraction of foods and RNIs was derived from meta-analysis or literature review analysis of previous studies in the literature. The literature search was performed using ISI-Web of Science (https://www.webofscience.com/wos/alldb/basic-search), Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) and the China Knowledge Resource Integrated database (https://www.cnki.net/).
Code availability
The custom algorithm used for this study is available in the Methods, Extended Data items and Source data.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank J. D. Toth and M. Qingfeng for their assistance in editing the manuscript. This work was financially sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U20A2047) and Innovation Research 2035 Pilot Plan of Southwest University (SWU-XDZD22001).
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X.C., Z.D. and F.Z. designed the research. X.W., S. F., Y.Z., L.M., C.Z., Z.B., P.L., X.S., D.L., W.Z., Y.D., W.Z., W.Z. and X.C. collected and analysed the data. X.C., X.W., P.L. and Z.D. wrote the manuscript.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Comparison of food loss/waste, non-food use, and food available consumption derived in this study vs. that of three other publications/methods.
The results referred as Gustavsson et al.27 and Porter et al.28 in the graph below were calculated using their food loss/waste parameters (but for baseline year 2017 food production data). These two often-cited studies did not consider the inedible food components as part of the non-food use category. For food loss/waste calculations, parameters used in the current study were derived from up-to-date publications, with many published in more recent years (sine 2015). The ‘FAO 2017’ data in the graph account for ‘food availability’ without considering food waste, therefore underestimating food loss/waste at each sector of the food chain change; it does not consider the inedible food component either26. Taken together, the amounts of food available consumption computed in this study is 12–36% less than the other three reference sources.
Extended Data Fig. 2
The production (a), available consumption (b), loss/waste (c), and non-food usage (d) of 11 food groups in different global regions, expressed as per capita per day.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Estimated nutrients availability as a ratio of recommended nutrient intake (RNI) at global or regional scale (a), and number of countries with nutrient intake status (b).
The status is operationally defined as severe deficit (estimated intake ratio < 60% of RNI), moderate deficit (60–80% of RNI), mild deficit (80–90% of RNI), near-adequate or adequate (90–130% of RNI), and surplus (>130% of RNI).
Extended Data Fig. 4 The relationship between country-level economic development and available consumption of food.
a, total foods; b, cereals; c, vegetables and fruits; d, meats; e, milk and eggs. The data source of GDP in each country was from World Bank60.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Nutrient availability status and country-level economic development indicators.
a, high-income (GDP >13000 $ capita−1 year−1); b, upper-middle-income (13000 > GDP > 4280 $ capita−1 year−1); c, lower-middle-income (4280 > GDP > 1000 $ capita−1 year−1); d, low-income countries (GDP < 1000 capita−1 year−1). The data source for GDP in each country was from World Bank60.
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Wang, X., Dou, Z., Feng, S. et al. Global food nutrients analysis reveals alarming gaps and daunting challenges. Nat Food 4, 1007–1017 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00851-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00851-5
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