مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد روند نزولی در غذاهای اروپایی، رژیم غذایی و صنایع غذایی – الزویر 2018

Understanding how an adequate food security may be determined, how nutritional intakes evolve over time and are influenced by global dynamics are few of the questions scholars are trying to answer. In addition, a great interest is devoted to the changes in consumers’ preferences and expectations as well as to the analysis of food innovations and their impact on the global market. We review the recent and emerging trends in food supply chains of selected sectors (fruits and vegetables, meat, and seafood), and deepen on emerging trends in the food industry. By presenting the evidence provided by the literature and emphasizing the unresolved research questions, we offer a critical view of future directions that should be followed by research agenda.

Introduction

During the last decades, the global dynamics in food production and consumption have evolved rapidly. The FAO estimated that the (per capita) calorie availability of 2,196 kcal /day in 1961 raised to 2,870 kcal/day in 2011 (FAO, 2015). On one hand, the increase in prices has lead to an over-supply, on the other hand the unequal distribution of production and incomes has exacerbated the problems of access to food (Barrett, 2002; Caracciolo & Santeramo, 2013; Otsuka, 2013). As a result, the measurement and investigation of the access to food, a key dimension of food security, has become a priority in developed and developing countries (Barrett, 2010; Leroy et al., 2015; Santeramo, 2015a,b; Muchenje & Mukumbo, 2015). A further aspect of high relevance is the assurance of adequate nutritional quality and quantity, which also impact on food security status. Changes in income and prices have been proved to be potentially disruptive for the correct balancing of the diet (Santeramo & Shabnam, 2015; Zhou & Yu, 2015). Moreover, the recent economic crises, joined to the high price volatility, have had severe consequences on global trade, global production and thus, on global availability of food (Bellemare, 2015; Santeramo et al., 2017). It is not surprising that diets have become less and less balanced. The prevalence of diseases linked to the consumption of unbalanced diets increased. Studies have shown the causality relationships between dietary patterns and lifestyle habits versus chronic illnesses (Jacques & Tucker, 2001; WHO, 2003; King et al., 2009). As such, the extreme importance of eradicating food insecurity, one of the Sustainable Development Goals in developing and developed economies, is pushing research to increase the effort to understand the trends in the global supply chains, the changes in consumers’ expectations, the evolution of the food industry, and the potential impacts of innovations (Parfitt et al., 2010; Gereffi & Lee, 2012). Based on these premises, it has been provided a wide, yet not exhaustive, review on the emerging trends in selected supply chains of the food industry. In particular, selected “case study” are provided: trends in three different food supply chains, namely fruits and vegetables, meat and meat products, and seafood products; the emergence of innovations in the food industry and, in particular, the development of novel foods, the evolution of functional foods and the use of nanotechnology. Recent changes in consumers’ choices have been emphasized and the up to date knowledge has been reviewed so to suggest future direction for research agenda. As for the trends in the global food industry, the increasing use of functional foods (Siro et al., 2008), the development of novel foods industries (Dovey et al., 2008), and the emergence of nanotechnologies in the food sector (Coles & Frewer, 2013) are likely to represent new frontiers worth great attention.