The taste of a healthy and sustainable diet: What is the recipe for the future?

Abstract

The world faces serious challenges and many of those involve current food behaviour. People have been seduced into liking food and drinks that are neither healthy nor good for the environment. Clearly we need a robust food system that is able to feed the growing population of the world. This food system should also be sustainable and good for the planet. What is the recipe for the future? There are no easy answers; everything is connected. According to the World Health Organization, the world needs bold and innovative solutions. This article gives an insight into the reasons the present food system is organised in the way it is and signals the problems. Climate change is a symptom of the malfunctioning of the present system. The food system, from farm to fork, is a major contributor to climate change. We need a systems change to fight climate change. This article presents a systems approach for food systems change and suggests a formula: C.A.T. The foods that are healthy both for the people and planet need to be: Convenient, Affordable and Tasty. These aspects influence food behaviour and are often overlooked. Nobody objects to eating something delicious; cooking, using fresh ingredients to create delicious dishes and to avoid ultra-processed foods, seems to be an important ingredient in the recipe for the future.

Insect-Based Food: A (Free) Choice

“…Changing dietary habits takes time and effort [37], involving personal [15] and societal views [14]. Consciousness is also a beneficial element [39].…”

“…Influence of preparation [28,35,36]. Influence of flavor and related [31,37]. Influence of smell and related aspects [30,31].…”

“…Another study compared pizza made with spirulina algae flour and 'cricket' flour and argued that consumers show increasing attention to their physical well-being [14]. Thus, while aiming to remove obstacles [36], the food system can focus on taste [37]. This means exploiting phagostimulants in insects once there are no other barriers.…”

“…Behavior is based on habits, mostly unconscious, and changing food behavior requires time and effort [37], which involves personal [15] and social beliefs [14] as well as other cognitive aspects of decision making. In addition, consciousness is another relevant factor which has a positive influence [39].…”

A vision on the ‘foodture’ role of dietary exposure sciences in the interplay between food safety and nutrition

“…Provision of safe, nutritious and high-quality food will become more and more challenging in the next decades owing to changes in global food systems and those of the European Union (EU) (EU, 2020;WHO, 2021). These changes are driven by a combination of factors, such as climate change, the growing world population, migrations, urbanization, increased demand for animal protein, increased prosperity (need to produce more and better-quality food), resource scarcity and globalisation of the food supply (FAO, 2018; FAO IFAD UNICEF WFP & WHO, 2020; Govindan, 2018;Klosse, 2019;Knorr et al, 2018;Misiou & Koutsoumanis, 2021). All these factors contribute to major shifts in the way food is and will be produced, distributed and consumed worldwide, and will eventually alter food composition, dietary habits, and access to and availability and affordability of food (King et al, 2017;Webb et al, 2020).…”