Articles in 2023

The sense of taste plays a major role in the identification and analysis of liquid food types. This study reports a droplet-based, self-powered triboelectric taste-sensing system that integrates two taste-sensing units. Combined with deep-learning data analytics and image recognition, the systems can achieve liquid recognition accuracy of up to 96.0%.

Most research on the impacts of food loss and waste (FLW) looks at food security, resource use and climate. Based on product-level FLW data and an NH₃ emission inventory, atmospheric chemistry simulations reveal the potential of FLW reductions in mitigating PM_2.5 air pollution and nitrogen deposition.

Imports and exports of agricultural goods change the distribution and flow of nutrients around the world. This study calculates trade-related phosphorus (P) resource savings and waste for 1961–2019, exploring options to improve global P use efficiency.

The consumption of animal-sourced foods increases food–feed competition for scarce cropland. A scenario analysis reveals how increased use of low-opportunity-cost feed products in animal feeding in China can reduce the impacts of livestock production on land, irrigation water, synthetic fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Malnutrition at both low and high levels of calorie consumption is a major global health challenge. Using a fully integrated framework, this study reports that healthier diets and reduced food waste improves both undernutrition and obesity outcomes while reducing pressure on environmental resources by 2050.

The elimination of forced labour (Sustainable Development Goal 8.7) is a priority for the sustainability of food systems. Using data on production, trade, labour intensity and risk, this study estimates the risk of forced labour embedded in the US land-based food supply across product category, country of origin and supply chain stage.

Modelled estimates of the environmental impact of dietary choices often fail to reflect true dietary practice. This study links a dietary dataset from 55,000 UK consumers with food-level data on GHG emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication and biodiversity to compare the environmental burden of different levels of meat consumption.

The disruption of hubs connecting production, processing and consumption locations may seriously impact agri-food supply-chain networks and affect food security. Using complex network statistics, this study identifies structural chokepoints that accumulate agri-food commodities from their production regions to be further processed and redistributed to final consumption points across the United States.

Efficiency improvements that cause price decreases and consumption increases may offset the benefits of avoided food loss and waste (FLW), hindering progress towards SDG 12. Based on published income-group- and food-type-specific price elasticities of supply and demand, this study quantifies the direct rebound effects from large reductions in FLW of six types of food.

Reducing the environmental pressure and impact of food production is central to the European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy. This study applies a multi-model approach to track food through the global trade network, estimating the land and water footprints of food consumption in the 27 member states of the European Union.

Negative-emission technologies might pose trade-offs to food security and other land-based sustainability targets. A scenario analysis reveals the potential impacts of bioenergy deployment in China on global and domestic sustainable development, and how free trade and food systems efficiency measures could mitigate the potential adverse sustainability impacts.

Wild foods may contribute to food security through different pathways. Using a monthly interval dataset from two rural districts in India, this study elucidates the impact of wild food consumption from forests and common lands on women’s dietary diversity.

African rice production is facing high spatiotemporal variability in rice yields and uncertain supply chains. This study proposes a framework to assess the future impacts of socio-economic development and climate change on African rice availability and stability. Both local and trade-propagated climatic variabilities are important to identify future challenges.

Food production shocks arising from the Russia–Ukraine conflict are explored in a multilayer network model, demonstrating that direct and indirect effects on production, such as sunflower oil, maize and poultry, can be estimated.

Using a physical trade flow approach and structural decomposition analysis, this study estimates consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions throughout food supply chains over 2000–2019, revealing overall trends and five underlying drivers.

The indirect effects of adopting the EAT–Lancet diet in the wider economy—and what this means for key social and environmental indicators—require further exploration. Using a general equilibrium model and tracing physical biomass, this study reveals spillover effects of a dietary shift on food prices, wages, trade, land use, biomass production and greenhouse gas emissions.

The exact location and extent of cocoa plantations in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s largest producers, remain unknown in spite of their social, economic and environmental relevance. New satellite-based high-resolution maps generated through a deep learning framework link cocoa cultivation with deforestation in protected areas and show that official reports underestimate the total planted area.

Standard tests to determine food spoilage are costly and time consuming. A poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride)-based sensor offers a low-cost alternative that can be linked to mobile phones for real-time spoilage analysis. The device was tested on chicken and beef samples under various storage conditions.

The hidden costs of current diets, or the cost saving associated with the adoption of low-carbon diets, remain unknown. This study combines life cycle assessment and monetarization factors to quantify the indirect costs of nine global dietary change strategies which progressively reduce animal-sourced foods, including consumption-linked health burden from changes in diet-related disease risk.

Individuals’ food choices are typically based on recipes, not specific ingredients. This study compares almost 600 dinner recipes from the UK, the USA and Norway in terms of healthiness and environmental impact—including adherence to dietary guidelines and aggregate health indicators, as well as greenhouse gas emissions and land use.