Agri-Food Industry Strategies for Healthy Diets and Sustainability

New Challenges in Nutrition and Public Health

Francisco J. Barba, Predrag Putnik, Danijela Bursac Kovacevic

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780128172261
• eBook ISBN: 9780128172278
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Nutrition, Dietics & Bariatrics
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Divided into five sections, Agri-Food Industry Strategies for Healthy Diets and Sustainability: New Challenges in Nutrition and Public Health provides an overview of the challenges and future perspectives related to nutrition, public health, and sustainability. The book addresses strategies to reduce fat, trans fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt consumption, while also exploring the manufacturing, safety, and toxicology of new food manufacturing.This book examines commercial labeling and nutritional education, nutrigenomics and public health, and provides coverage of the valorization of waste and by-products from the food industry. Nutrition researchers and practitioners, food scientists, technologists, engineers, agronomists, food product developers, medical and public health professionals, and postgraduate students focused in food science and nutrition are sure to find this reference work a welcomed addition to their libraries.- Contains innovative strategies to achieve a healthy diet through the design of new food products- Provides comprehensive information related to agriculture, nutrition, food industry, government, and sustainable waste management and details their roles in addressing food waste- Explores the ways in which innovative approaches, used to valorize and give an added value to agri-food waste and by-products, ensure the sustainability of the production process- Presents nutritive education about reducing empty calories by lowering consumption of fats, sugars, and other high-calorie nutrients- Delineates the roles of food industry and government in shaping the best policies for the general public and the design of new products

Section I

Introduction

Outline

• Chapter 1 Nutrition, public health, and sustainability: an overview of current challenges and future perspectives
• Chapter 2 Strategies to achieve a healthy and balanced diet: fruits and vegetables as a natural source of bioactive compounds

Chapter 1

Nutrition, public health, and sustainability: an overview of current challenges and future perspectives

Sonia Barba-Orellana¹, Francisco J. Barba², Francisco Quilez³, Lucía Cuesta³, Gabriela I. Denoya^4,5, Patrícia Vieira⁶, Carlos A. Pinto⁶ and Jorge A. Saraiva⁶, ¹Centro Sanitario Integrado de Xirivella, Consorci Hospital General Universitari València, Valencia, Spain, ²Nutrition and Food Science Area, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Food Sciences, Toxicology and Forensic Medicine Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitat de València, València, Spain, ³Valencian School for Health Studies (EVES), Professional Training Unit, Valencia, Spain, ⁴National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA), Food Technology Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina, ⁵National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina, ⁶QOPNA & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract

Marked changes in the lifestyle of society over the past few years, both in developed and developing countries, lead to an increase in sedentary activities and the consumption of unhealthy diets. This is the main cause of the increase of malnutrition and overweight people worldwide that, in turn, lead to chronic diseases like obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases that are of high public health concern. The aim of this chapter is to provide some advice for maintaining a healthy diet and the technologies that could be applied to achieve global food security in a sustainable way, and reducing food waste. On the other hand, the importance of bioactive compounds and the development of new foods products are also presented.

Keywords

Nutrition; public health; sustainability; agri-food; nonconventional processing

1.1 Introduction

The changes that have taken place in our society since the first industrial revolution and, especially, over the last few decades of the 20th century have led to a transformation in the socioeconomic system that has had an important impact on the food availability for the society, which is one of the basic pillars of the public health point of view. From that point of view, today’s society faces two problems:

1. 1. Excessive food consumption (mainly in developed countries): Throughout history, human diseases have evolved as a result of demographic, economic, food, labor, and social changes. Thus in developed countries the main cause of death are chronic diseases resulting from various factors associated with this modern life. Obesity is one of the consequences of unhealthy eating habits associated with a sedentary lifestyle, and currently is a global public health problem. This “pandemic” affects not only industrialized countries but also developing countries since it stopped being a problem that affected only opulent social classes to reach even the most vulnerable sectors of the society.
2. 2. Technological advances have helped in the prevention, early screening, or cure of some diseases, leading to the decrease of sufferers or deaths because of them; however, other diseases and health problems have arisen due to modern lifestyles.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has described obesity as a “growing epidemic.” Economic progress and globalization led to an unlimited availability of food, without apparent problems of rationing or seasonality. There is a wide variety of products, including exotic foods that are easy to come by. This, together with the new habits of life, in which physical effort does not usually prevail, contributes to the increase in overweight and obesity in most of the countries in the world.

Obesity, a disease in itself, usually does not occur alone, but carries several symptoms that lead to a serious health hazard. Metabolic syndrome (MS) has been described as a set of several risk factors that occur in an individual and that increase cardiovascular disease probability. These factors are mainly obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and arteriosclerosis (OMS, 2003). Although MS is harder to measure, the prevalence could be estimated in about 25% population of the world (i.e., over a billion people are now affected with MS). According to the WHO, the main factor for suffering from this disease is insulin resistance since a permanent hyperinsulinemia would eventually lead to cardiovascular disease, but it should be combined with two or more of other risk factors [high blood pressure, triglycerides, waist–hip ratio, low high density lipoprotein (HDL), cholesterol] to be called MS (Saklayen, 2018).

Although there are some causes of MS that are difficult to deal with, such as genetic factors, there are some that could be decreased with public health actions, and they have a great weight in MS development (especially sedentary lifestyle, consumption of caloric and fatty foods, stress). Therefore a healthy diet is one of the strategies in order to avoid the appearance of the factors that contribute to the appearance of chronic diseases.

In 2004, at the 57th World Health Assembly (WHA) and through resolution WHA 57/17, the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health was approved, in which member states are urged to strengthen the structures for managing resources that aimed at reducing the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and the risks related to unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. In this assembly member countries were also invited to carry out obesity monitoring through surveillance systems and indicators in terms of eating habits and physical activity. In 2005, the European Union (EU) established the European Platform of Action on food, physical activity, and health, and the member countries that joined committed to taking actions and investing more resources in campaigns to fight obesity by promoting healthy diets and the practice of physical activity. More recently, the WHO Ministerial Conference on Obesity held in Istanbul in 2006, set out in the European charter against obesity, the challenge posed by this epidemic for public health in the WHO European region, and points out the objectives, principles, and frameworks of action for the countries of the EU. In this Conference the II Plan of action of the WHO on Nutrition and Food Policies 2007–12 was presented. This plan included the main public challenges in the areas of research, food safety, micronutrient deficiencies, and foodborne diseases. The EU member states considered that the identification and strengthening of synergies between policies and programs of nutrition, food security and guarantee, were crucial to meet these challenges. The information and education of consumers also acquired special importance.

A healthy diet is understood as that formed by foods that provide adequate and variable nutrient contents that we need to be healthy. Thus healthy eating should provide a quantity of energy nutrients (calories) that are sufficient to carry out the metabolic and physical work processes necessary for daily activities. Furthermore, it is important to incorporate varied foods that provide sufficient nutrients—which have different functions such as plastic and regulatory, including proteins, minerals, and vitamins—while, on the other hand, it is also important that the uptake of each one of the nutrients is balanced and in the right amount. A healthy diet should provide a balance of protein, fiber-rich carbohydrates, and unsaturated fats, with no trans-fats and limited intake of free sugars, saturated fats, and salt (WHO, 2018). In addition, all foods must be safe to consume, complying with current sanitary requirements in terms of production, transportation, supply, handling, and consumption. Education in good eating habits is an excellent tool to prevent diseases and promote health in populations.

In addition, the food production process concentrated in specific places by the industry, leads to the generation of a varied agri-food wastes in terms of quality and composition that, when mixed or decomposed, could contribute to environmental contamination and can be a problem of public health. On the other hand, there is an increasing problem with adequate food supply.

In this chapter, we will present possible strategies to achieve a healthy diet. In addition, some of the innovative approaches that can be used to valorize and give an added value to agri-food waste and by-products, thus ensuring the sustainability of the production process of the agri-food industry, will be presented, as well as traditional and emergent food processing technologies to obtain healthier and safer food products.

1.2 Food safety

Safety and perishability are fundamental for the consumption of food products. Safety is marked by the presence of a pathogen or toxic chemical. The composition of the food, processing, packaging, and storage determine its perishability (Erkmen, 2012). A variety of available technologies and procedures are applied to preserve food, which aims to extend the shelf-life of food while assuring its safety for consumers. Shelf-life is the time it takes a product to decline to an unacceptable level for consumption. Food deterioration is caused by physical, biological, microbiological, chemical, and biochemical factors (see Fig. 1.1) will result in loss of quality attributes, including nutritional composition, flavor, texture, color, bioactive compounds, and sensory properties. Therefore preservation methods should be applied as early as possible in food production. Besides, the selection of the best and appropriate technology and/or p...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgment
• Section I: Introduction
• Section II: Reduction of caloric intake
• Section III: Salt reduction and development of new foods
• Section IV: Labelling, nutritional education and new strategies
• Section V: Sustainability and public health: use of waste and by-products
• Index