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Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 17867

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Amélia Martins Delgado

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Guest Editor

Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development & Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Universidade do Algarve Edf 8, 8 005-139 Faro, Portugal
Interests: sustainable food systems; food security and climate change; agrobiodiversity; food and health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will publish contributions about advancements in the sustainability of food systems and the circular bioeconomy and related key topics of high impact. The 20th century saw great achievements in food safety and security, although at the cost of the erosion of natural resources and the dissemination of unhealthy diets, while the 21st century saw an increasing awareness of the threats (such as climate change) and challenges (such as fighting obesity in parallel with malnutrition). In addition, the Covid-19 sanitary crisis exacerbated inequalities with risks of growing food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance, gaps in food safety, and disruption of supply chains. Moreover, there is an urgency in restoring soils and agrobiodiversity, in order to deliver nutritious and safe foods to human populations across the globe, while tackling climate change. As the food system encompasses multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), such threats and challenges need to be approached in a transversal way. In this respect, the Mediterranean diet, which goes beyond the food pattern that inspired newly developed diets (nordic, flexitarian), also encompasses other inspirational dimensions of sustainability, as nature-respectful landscapes, ways of optimizing water management, and cultural and social values that influence behaviors. In improving processes and changing attitudes, the environmental impact of foods must be assessed by adequate and widely adopted metrics that can be clearly communicated and aligned with consumer preferences. This Special Issue will comprise selected papers that cover topics related, but not limited to, the following keywords:

Sustainability metrics; valuing agrobiodiversity; sustainable diets; sustainable food processing; secondary raw materials; food storage and supply chains; food packaging; consumer behavior; economic aspects of circular bioeconomy.

Dr. Amélia Martins Delgado
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Sustainability metrics
valuing agrobiodiversity
sustainable diets
sustainable food processing
secondary raw materials
food storage and supply chains
food packaging
consumer behavior
economic aspects of circular bioeconomy

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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38 pages, 10241 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Food System Sustainability Metrics: Policies, Quantification, and the Role of Complexity Sciences

by José V. Matos and Rui J. Lopes

Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12408; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132212408 - 10 Nov 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1766

Abstract

The rise of global attention toward sustainability and sustainable development (SD) has provided increased incentives for research development and investment in these areas. Food systems are at the center of human needs and global population growth sustainability concerns. These drives and the need to provide quantified support for related investment projects led to the proliferation of sustainability metrics and frameworks. While questions about sustainability definition and measurement still abound, SD policy design and control increasingly need adequate quantified support instruments. This paper aims to address this need, contributing to a more consistent and integrated application of food system sustainability metrics and quantified management of the implemented solutions. After presenting the relationships between sustainability, resilience, and robustness and summarizing food system sustainability quantification developments so far, we expose complexity sciences’ potential contributions toward SD quantified evaluation, addressing prediction, intangibles, and uncertainty issues. Finding a paramount need to make sense and bring existing sustainability metrics in context for operational use, we conclude that the articulated application of multiple and independent modeling approaches at the micro, meso, and macro levels can better help the development of food SD policies and implemented solution quantified management, with due regard to confidence levels of the results obtained. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy)

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15 pages, 539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Nitrogen Fertilization on the Yield, Quality and Fatty Acid Composition of Opuntia ficus-indica Seed Oil

by Vuyelwa Nkoi, Maryna de Wit, Herman Fouche, Gesine Coetzer and Arno Hugo

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10123; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131810123 - 09 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2301

Abstract

Cactus pears are nutritious, drought-tolerant plants that flourish in hot and arid regions. All its plant parts can be consumed by humans and animals. Fruit seed oil production is an important emerging industry in South Africa. As part of an initiative to promote cactus pears as multi-functional crops, dual-purpose cultivars should be identified, and their production increased. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on the seed oil yield and quality of Opuntia ficus-indica. The project encompassed a trial using N fertilization from three N sources (limestone ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, urea) and four N application levels (0, 60, 120, 240 kg ha⁻¹). Oil was quantitatively extracted from the seed using the Folch method; fatty acids were quantified using a Varian 430-GC. Seed oil content significantly increased (p = 0.035) with increased N fertilization rates; the oil yield ranged between 7.96 and 9.54%. The composition of the main fatty acids (oleic, palmitic, cis-vaccenic and stearic acid) was significantly influenced; oleic and stearic acid were significantly increased by higher fertilization levels whereas a reducing trend was observed in palmitic and cis-vaccenic acid levels. The highest content fatty acid, linoleic acid, was not significantly influenced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy)

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21 pages, 2840 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Sustainability Opportunities for Mediterranean Food Products through New Formulations Based on Carob Flour (Ceratonia siliqua L.)

by Manel Issaoui, Guido Flamini and Amélia Delgado

Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 8026; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13148026 - 19 Jul 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3663

Abstract

Carob flour is increasingly popular in innovative functional foods. Its main producers are Mediterranean countries, facing health and nutrition challenges, and difficulties in tackling climate change. This study aims at formulating innovative sustainable bakery products of high nutritional value while pleasing the consumer and addressing regional challenges. Hence, carob flour was obtained by grinding sun-dried carob pods, thus reducing the environmental impact, and preserving carob’s high nutraceutical value. Different bread formulations resulted from the blend of wheat flour with carob pulp (5, 10, 20, and 30%) and/or seed powder (5 and 10%), with no added fats, additives, or processing aids. New products were evaluated for their textural, chromatic, nutritional, aromatic, and hedonic properties. Carob is rich in aroma, antioxidants, and prebiotic fibers, and does not contain gluten, so when combined with wheat, the proportion of gluten in bread is reduced. Carob is also rich in minerals (4.16% and 2.00% ash, respectively in seed and pulp), and breadmaking seems to generate lesser furane derivatives than in white bread. In short, carob is typically Mediterranean and is a valuable local resource in the formulation of sustainable foods with high nutritional value, low carbon footprint, safe, healthy, tasty, and affordable, all at once. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy)

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18 pages, 1095 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Environmental Issues as Drivers for Food Choice: Study from a Multinational Framework

by Raquel P. F. Guiné, Elena Bartkiene, Sofia G. Florença, Ilija Djekić, Maša Černelič Bizjak, Monica Tarcea, Marcela Leal, Vanessa Ferreira, Ivana Rumbak, Panagiotis Orfanos, Viktória Szűcs, Dace Klava, Małgorzata Korzeniowska, Kathy Isoldi, Paula Correia, Manuela Ferreira and Ana Paula Cardoso

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2869; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052869 - 06 Mar 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5928

Abstract

This work intended to explore some motivations that influence people’s eating habits towards sustainability. This was an observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by questionnaire survey on a non-probabilistic sample of 10,067 participants from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Romania and United States). Results indicated that people prefer fresh local foods from the season, being important because it allows transportation and storage to be reduced, which in many cases implies refrigeration systems and consequent energy expenditure. Although people avoid food waste at home, the awareness for the waste at restaurants still needs to be improved. Consumers seem to prefer foods that have been produced and packed in sustainable ways but still give importance to the package—understandable for food products. The results also indicated significant differences in the food choice motivations between groups for all sociodemographic variables tested (age, sex, marital status, education, professional area, living environment and country), but the association was high only for variable country. Additionally, a tree classification analysis allowed to identify the relative importance of the influential variables on the sustainable food choices, with country being the most important, followed by age and sex. Additionally, discriminant function analysis allowed establishing a model for the relation between country and six variables accounting for preservation of biodiversity, respect for life, save natural resources, save energy, reduce industrial pollution and minimal packaging. Although with some limitations, this study brings valuable insight into some aspects linked with sustainable food choices on a number of countries and how people shape their food choices according to some sustainability issues. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy)

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Other

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11 pages, 1004 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Sustainable Management of Secondary Raw Materials from the Marine Food-Chain: A Case-Study Perspective

by Massimo Lucarini, Antonio Zuorro, Gabriella Di Lena, Roberto Lavecchia, Alessandra Durazzo, Barbara Benedetti and Ginevra Lombardi-Boccia

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8997; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12218997 - 29 Oct 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2927

Abstract

The feasibility of exploiting secondary raw materials from marine food-chains as a source of molecules of nutritional interest, to create high-value food products and to meet nutritional challenges, is described in this report. A reduction in food waste is urgent as many sectors of the food industry damage the environment by depleting resources and by generating waste that must be treated. The project herein described, deals with the recovery of natural molecules, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA, DHA) and of α-tocopherol, from fish processing by-products. This would promote the sustainable development of new food products for human nutrition, as well as nutraceuticals. The growing awareness of increasing omega-3 fatty acids intake, has focused attention on the importance of fish as a natural source of these molecules in the diet. Therefore, a study on the concentration of these bioactive compounds in such matrices, as well as new green methodologies for their recovery, are necessary. This would represent an example of a circular economy process applied to the seafood value chain. Fish processing by-products, so far considered as waste, can hopefully be reutilized as active ingredients into food products of high added-value, thus maximizing the sustainability of fish production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy)

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