Blind spots in elementary students’ perceptions regarding the food system: expanding Fonseca’s research on depictions of animal food production in Portuguese textbooks

Greenhouse gas emissions related to Dutch food consumption

A review of life cycle assessment (LCA) on some food products

Carbon footprints of Indian food items

The safety of millions of the world’s population is at significant risk. Unsafe food products and foodborne diseases cause the preventable deaths of over two million people annually globally. This situation represents a global sense of urgency in which nations and food product safety-oriented organizations seek to develop and implement actionable strategies to address unsafe food products and foodborne diseases. Food product safety management is critical to enabling safe food products throughout the food product lifecycle. The food product lifecycle represents the activities involved with food products from origin to consumption and/or ultimate disposition. Effective management of food product lifecycle activities is critical to enable safe food product consumption globally. However, virtually every nation, from the least to the most advanced, and every food product safety-oriented organization, lacks a holistic, integrated, strategic approach to enable effective food product safety management. The authors propose that nations and food product safety-oriented organizations adopt the Food Product Safety Management Integrated Framework (Proposed). This proposed framework prescribes a holistic, integrated, strategic approach to enabling global food product safety management that includes effective food product safety management governance, a food product safety management strategy, a food product safety management enterprise architecture, a food product safety management portfolio management capability, and a food product safety management capital planning and investment management capability. Adopting the proposed framework would enable nations to achieve effective food product safety management by leveraging a holistic, integrated, and strategic approach.

European food production systems have become very efficient in terms of high yield, quality and safety. However, these production systems are not sustainable since, amongst other reasons, a significant proportion of the production is wasted or lost in the supply chain. One of the strategies of the European Union is to achieve climate neutrality by moving towards a circular economy with better waste management. This includes, reducing food waste and losses, and reusing or recycling by-products of the food and feed production systems. A circular economy would greatly improve the sustainability of the European food systems, but attention must be paid to the emergence of (new) food safety hazards. New or not well-known hazards can occur because by-products are reintroduced into the system or new processing steps are used for recycling, and/or known hazards can accumulate in the food production chain due to the reuse of (by-)products. This review addresses food safety hazards in the circular biobased economy, covering the domains of plant production, animal production, aquaculture, and packaging. Instead of an exhaustive list of all potential hazards, example cases of circular food production systems are given, highlighting the known and potential emerging food safety hazards. Current literature covering emerging food safety hazards in the circular economy shows to be limited. Therefore, more research is needed to identify food safety hazards, to measure the accumulation and the distribution of such hazards in the food and feed production systems, and to develop control and mitigation strategies. We advocate a food safety by design approach.

Agriculture has a negative impact on environmental components. This exposure is mainly due to the use of pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic agricultural chemicals. And wine production is no exception, the process of growing grapes and processing them into wine also contributes to these effects. Using a method called life cycle assessment (LCA), the impact on environmental components of the life cycle of various products can be assessed and compared. In this article, we present some of the main stages of the wine's life cycle. To determine the environmental impact of an agricultural product, it is necessary to conduct a life cycle analysis of an individual product. The life cycle of wine production is divided into the following stages: production, transportation, storage, processing and completion of the product life cycle – consumption. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the winery on the environment. In the course of the research, methods were used to assess the impact of the life cycle of food products on environmental components: the method of balance schemes and the method of relevant tables (ABC-analysis), which allow taking into account incoming (raw materials, resources, including fuel and energy), outgoing (solid waste, gas emissions, wastewater) and risky environmental aspects. For comparative analysis, methods have been developed to assess the impact of the life cycle of wine products obtained by traditional and biodynamic methods on environmental components. It has been revealed that solid and liquid waste products have the greatest negative impact on the environment. The results obtained are aimed at improving the environmental safety of the enterprise and reducing its harmful effects on the environment. Key words: LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT, BALANCE CHARTS, RELEVANT TABLES, ABC-ANALYSIS

An optimal diet for planet and people

Introduction [1] Adaptation by Food Law to Food Systems’ Issues [a] Affects in Previous Food Law Phases The concept of “food systems” as used in this treatise refers to multiple systems: local, regional, national, and global. Two additional points flesh out the concept of food systems as used in this treatise. First, each food system comprises the production, processing, preparation, packaging, promotion, sales, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food. The shorthand descriptor of these events is known as “farm-to-fork” or “farm-to-plate,” which connote a systematic way of thinking about the life cycle of a food product. Second, a “food systems approach” involves more than the acknowledgment of the multiple stages in the modern food system; it also refers to an orientation that raises normative questions about what sort of food system(s) is preferable. Discussion of these normative questions involves food policy that is beyond the scope of this food law treatise; however, the implications of the debate are germane to food law because much of emerging law governing food is shaped in response to the changing norms and social ideas about the food system(s). The adaptation by food law to food systems issues is evident in each of the phases outlined in this treatise – food commerce, safety, marketing, and nutrition. For example, a critical issue in food safety regulation is whether small enterprises should be excluded from food safety laws in order to preserve the small farm, seen by many as the foundation for a successful local food system. Emerging labeling laws determine how food credence information (i.e., organic, grass-fed, cage-less, GMO-free) is conveyed to consumers concerned about the values of the food system from which the food product is derived. Indeed, the motivation for state initiatives on mandatory labeling for genetically engineered foods is less about food safety and more about what kind of food system voting consumers prefer. Finally, laws are being used to correct the deficiencies in food system(s) that result in malnutrition and obesity. The pressures on the law to govern the layered, complex food systems are immense. Gaps in administrative regulation give rise to additional legal tools, such as private standards, self-governance, and litigation. Preferences for one food system over another generate policy tensions and affect the type of laws that emerge.

Currently, one of the priorities of the food industry is to ensure the quality and safety of products. Food industry enterprises produce products that meet the requirements of regulatory and technical documentation and consumer preferences. But often it is at the stages of distribution, storage and sale that quality indicators deteriorate. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of delivery of products leads to defects, and such products will not be safe for consumption. In this regard, it is necessary to find such methods and means of labeling that would preserve the nutritional value and consumer properties throughout the entire life cycle of products. The work is devoted to the use of modern labeling methods to preserve consumer properties at the stages of product distribution and the economic costs of implementation. It is proposed to use a QR code or radio frequency tags NFC-PASS, which record information about the Internet resource that contains data about this particular product.

<scp>IFST</scp> vision for a <scp>UK</scp>‐wide national food strategy

Feeding a growing, increasingly affluent population while limiting environmental pressures of food production is a central challenge for society. Understanding the location and magnitude of food production is key to addressing this challenge because pressures vary substantially across food production types. Applying data and models from life cycle assessment with the methodologies for mapping cumulative environmental impacts of human activities (hereafter cumulative impact mapping) provides a powerful approach to spatially map the cumulative environmental pressure of food production in a way that is consistent and comprehensive across food types. However, these methodologies have yet to be combined. By synthesizing life cycle assessment and cumulative impact mapping methodologies, we provide guidance for comprehensively and cumulatively mapping the environmental pressures (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, spatial occupancy, and freshwater use) associated with food production systems. This spatial approach enables quantification of current and potential future environmental pressures, which is needed for decision makers to create more sustainable food policies and practices.

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

There is a growing understanding at global level on the importance of preserving Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems. Those not only play a determinant role in the food security and well-being of the 476 million of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. They can also provide some of the answers for the transformation towards more sustainable food systems across the world.Indigenous Peoples’ food systems share unique and common characteristics of sustainability and resilience. In particular, they are based on both food generation (e.g. fishing, hunting, gathering) and food production (e.g. shifting cultivation, herding), and are rooted in unique worldviews, values and knowledge systems. Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems are carried from one generation to another thanks to specific ways of learning embodied in their languages. Whilst a right-based approach (UNDRIP, FPIC) is a pre-condition to design effective policies aiming to support Indigenous Peoples’ food systems, there is primarily the need to also better understand those. In 2015, FAO Members endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication aligned with those international legal frameworks.In this context, Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems pioneers new ways in which knowledge is created. It brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts to generate evidence and bridge the gap of knowledge between scientific and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems.Since its official endorsement in 2020, the Global-Hub has published several technical papers, inviting to rethink the hierarchies of knowledge, and support global policy processes that may affect Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.Recently, FAO PSUI and the Global-Hub have deepened their work on marine and freshwater-based food systems. In 2021, FAO worked with Massey university, Alliance of BI-CIAT, and the Melanesians people of Baniata to profile to profile their food system in Solomon Islands. It resulted in an increased understanding on the challenges faced by this community despite the outstanding biodiversity available for their food and nutrition.In 2023, FAO hosted the II Session of the UN Global Indigenous Youth Forum, that brought together 186 Indigenous Youth from the seven socio-cultural regions. The resulting Rome Declaration on Safeguarding Seven Generations in Times of Food, Social and Ecological Crisis provides 49 policy recommendations distributed around 7 main thematic areas. The 20 Indigenous Youth from the Pacific delegation emphasized on the need to preserve their food and knowledge systems in the context of increasing impacts of climate change. Finally, in 2023, the Global-Hub created a Pacific Research Group dedicated to the better understanding and preservation of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems in the region.

Global groundwater resources are under strain, with cascading effects on producers, food and fibre production systems, communities and ecosystems. Investments in biophysical research have clarified the challenges, catalysed a proliferation of technological solutions and supported incentivizing individual irrigators to adjust practices. However, groundwater management is fundamentally a governance challenge. The reticence to prioritize building governance capacity represents a critical ‘blind spot’ contributing to a low return on investment for research funding with negative consequences for communities moving closer towards resource depletion. In this Perspective, we recommend shifts in research, extension and policy priorities to build polycentric governance capacity and strategic planning tools, and to re-orient priorities to sustaining aquifer-dependent communities in lieu of maximizing agricultural production at the scale of individual farm operations. To achieve these outcomes, groundwater governance needs to be not only prioritized but also democratized. Global groundwater resources are under strain, with cascading effects on producers, food and fibre production systems, communities and ecosystems. In this Perspective, the authors call for a major shift in research, extension and policy priorities to build polycentric governance capacity and strategic planning tools to sustain aquifer-dependent communities.

Networking to reduce microbial risk in foods