Sustainable Food Systems: Safety, Nutrition, and Development

Posted on Sep 4, 2024 in Physical Education

Sustainable Food Systems

Three Main Aspects of Diet

  1. Food supply in the range of sustainable development
  2. Food safety (food legislation, food control, food safety surveillance and monitoring)
  3. Nutrition (choice of healthy composition of diet)

Sustainable Development

Food is essential to life. It also forms an important part of our cultural identity and plays an important role in the economy. People are aware that the food they eat is an important factor affecting their health, but what is less well known is the impact producing and consuming food has on the world’s resources.

  • E.g., greenhouse gas emissions, the use of land and water resources, pollution, depletion of phosphorus, and the impact of chemical products such as herbicides and pesticides.

Globally, and in many regions including Europe, food production is exceeding environmental limits or is close to doing so. There are many different views as to what constitutes a ‘sustainable’ food system, but it is generally accepted as:

A pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.

  • Ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges facing humanity.
  • The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts:
    1. Environmental sustainability
    2. Economic sustainability
    3. Socio-political sustainability

Sustainable Agriculture

It is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It has been defined as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term:

  • Satisfy human food and fiber needs
  • Make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
  • Sustain the economic viability of farm operations
  • Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole

Food Safety

Food safety is defined as the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. This includes several routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. The tracks within this line of thought are safety between industry and the market and then between the market and the consumer.

Food safety considerations include:

  • The origins of food, including the practices relating to food labeling, food hygiene, food additives, and pesticide residues
  • Policies on biotechnology and food
  • Guidelines for the management of governmental import and export inspection and certification systems for foods

In theory, food poisoning is 100% preventable. The five key principles of food hygiene, according to WHO, are:

  1. Prevent contaminating food with pathogens spreading from people, pets, and pests.
  2. Separate raw and cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked foods.
  3. Cook foods for the appropriate length of time and at the appropriate temperature to kill pathogens.
  4. Store food at the proper temperature.
  5. Use safe water and cooked materials.

Food safety is achieved through:

  • Food legislation (e.g., requiring labels with information on all contained nutrients and additives, warnings about daily dose recommendations and potential allergen content, etc.)
  • Food control
  • Food safety surveillance and monitoring (e.g., ASAE in Portugal) – inspection of production, sale points, restaurants, etc.

WHO

  • The 53rd World Health Assembly requested the Director-General to put in place a global strategy for surveillance of foodborne diseases and initiate other activities on food safety and health.
  • Since then, the WHO has drawn up a global food safety strategy to reduce the health and social burden of foodborne disease.
  • The proposed methods are:
    1. Advocating and supporting the development of risk-based, sustainable integrated food safety systems.
    2. Devising science-based measures along the entire food production chain that will prevent exposure to unacceptable levels of microbiological agents and chemicals in food.
    3. Assessing and managing foodborne risks and communicating information in cooperation with other sectors and partners.

Surveillance of foodborne diseases is the basis for formulating national strategies to reduce food-related risks. Detailed and accurate knowledge about the nature and level of foodborne diseases is a prerequisite for action to lower the levels. This requires an interdisciplinary approach that includes all sectors dealing with foodborne diseases and food safety in both the health and agriculture sectors.

Nutrition

Nutrition is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body’s dietary needs.

  • Good nutrition – an adequate, well-balanced diet combined with regular physical activity – is a cornerstone of good health.
  • Poor nutrition can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity.

Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet. A poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy and kwashiorkor, health-threatening conditions like obesity and metabolic syndrome, and common chronic systemic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

The WHO makes the following five recommendations concerning a healthy diet:

  1. Achieve an energy balance and a healthy weight.
  2. Limit energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and toward eliminating trans-fatty acids.
  3. Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts.
  4. Limit the intake of simple sugars.
  5. Limit salt/sodium consumption from all sources and ensure the salt is iodized.

Other recommendations include:

  • Sufficient essential amino acids to provide cellular replenishment and transport proteins.
  • Essential micronutrients such as vitamins and certain minerals.
  • Avoiding directly poisonous (e.g., heavy metals) and carcinogenic substances (e.g., benzene).
  • Avoiding foods contaminated by human pathogens.