About this Research Topic
Global strategies for food sustainability tend to under-appreciate the notion of nutrient sustainability at the organismal and cellular level. Yet and since the beginning of life, foods are primarily meant to supply nutrients and micronutrients to adequately cover nutritional needs of living cells and whole living organisms. This Research Topic will be dedicated to research about how to develop integrative concepts of food and nutrition sustainability positioning nutrient biological efficacy at the core of novel food solutions and processes. This Research Topic covers integrative nutritional and sustainability scoring systems for the nutritional classification of foods and diets. It will welcome research articles and reviews reporting on innovative approaches to improve bioaccessibility and bioavailability of nutrients, micronutrients and phytonutrients from sustainable foods and carbon-neutral/positive productions including plant-based products, and mycelium- and microalgae-based food solutions. Contributions addressing innovative concepts for nutritional upcycling of industrial food side streams as well as natural processes (fermentation, germination) to improve nutrient density and to reduce anti-nutritive substances from both modern and ancestral foods are also expected. Relevant sub-topics may include:
• New nutritional/sustainability scoring system: moving towards a simple, single integrative score
• Moving from nutrient density (nutrient quantity) towards integrative nutritional efficacy and environmental impact of food production: from food scoring to diet scoring
• Nutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability: focus on alternative proteins (plant based, mycelium and so forth) and carbon-neutral/positive production (microalgae and so forth)
• Biological models to study nutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability, for example, protein digestibility (including applications to micronutrients/phytonutrients)
• Upcycling of industrial food/feed co-products: how to maximize nutrient production and antinutrient removal or limitation, leveraging food processing technology and approaches such as fermentation
• Ancestral foods and processes: hidden beauty to wake up foods (germination, fermentation…)
This Research Topic aims to collect publications relevant to human nutrition and food science only. Studies relating to animals or animal nutrition other than animal models for human nutrition will not be accepted in this Research Topic and will be re-directed to other relevant Frontiers journals.
• New nutritional/sustainability scoring system: moving towards a simple, single integrative score
• Moving from nutrient density (nutrient quantity) towards integrative nutritional efficacy and environmental impact of food production: from food scoring to diet scoring
• Nutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability: focus on alternative proteins (plant based, mycelium and so forth) and carbon-neutral/positive production (microalgae and so forth)
• Biological models to study nutrient bioaccessibility and bioavailability, for example, protein digestibility (including applications to micronutrients/phytonutrients)
• Upcycling of industrial food/feed co-products: how to maximize nutrient production and antinutrient removal or limitation, leveraging food processing technology and approaches such as fermentation
• Ancestral foods and processes: hidden beauty to wake up foods (germination, fermentation…)
This Research Topic aims to collect publications relevant to human nutrition and food science only. Studies relating to animals or animal nutrition other than animal models for human nutrition will not be accepted in this Research Topic and will be re-directed to other relevant Frontiers journals.
Keywords: sustainability, molecular nutrition, bioavailability, bioaccessibility, upcycling, sustainable nutrition
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
