Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Buenos días. En cuanto a la consulta sobre los topicos Sistemas Alimentarios y Nutrición se encuentran bien orientado. Los problemas alimentarios presentan alta complejidad a la hora de evaluar los habitos alimentarios. Existen factores sociales relacionados al nivel de ingreso familiar; factores psicologicos como el sentido de pertenencia a diferentes grupos sociales como los deportistas, vegetarianos, etc; factores psico-fisiologicos como el gusto que se desarrolla por los alimentos ricos en lipidos y en sal el cual esta mas alla de decir que aportan sabor al alimento ya que conlleva internamente vias afectivas de placer transformandose en alimentos de orden adictivos para personas con factores geneticos predispuestos; factores micro y macroeconomicos regulados por politicas nacionales e internacionales.

Las familias de bajo recurso economico que sufren problemas de desnutricion y carencias de micronutrientes acomodan sus habitos alimentarios a la posibilidad de poder comprarlos. No se trata si pueden tener una filosofia sobre su alimentacion ya que no dependende de cuestiones culturales o de enseñanza sino de disponibilidad presupuestaria a la hora de poder modificar su habitos alimentarios. Las familias que poseen suficientes recursos economicos pueden modificar sus habitos alimentarios ya que en mucha poblaciones la hipernutricion esta asociada a un exceso de calorias y nutrientes debido a que estan al alcance de su poder adquisitivo. En dichos grupos la eleccion de una modificacion de habitos alimentarios se puede realizar mediante la enseñanza de una alimentacion mas saludable y tambien por asociacion sociologica a diferentes grupos culturales como la gente que realiza deportes.

Por otro lado el contexto economico global a la hora de la produccion de alimentos fija la produccion no en cuanto a que se necesita sino en cuanto a factores economicos. Cuando el precio de los comodities alimentarios internacionales disminuyen por un sobre stock de alimentos se genera una desinversion para la produccion primaria de alimentos conllevando a una posterior disminucion de alimentos para poder elevar los precios y mejorar la rentabilidad de las diferentes cadenas productivas. Esto atenta grandemente a las poblaciones con bajo recursos economicos. Ya que no pueden proveerse de diferentes alimentos a bajos costos y poder modificar sus habitos alimentarios. Se carece en muchos lugares de politicas estatales que aseguren la seguridad alimentaria y la diversidad alimentarias de la poblacion y solo queda regulada por los factores economicos que rigen la produccion de alimentos.

Cambiar los sistemas alimentarios y la regulacion de la nutricion con todos los factores que afectan es un gran pendiente que tienen que responder las autoridades. Realmente se piensa en los sistemas alimentarios y en la nutricion con una planificacion de la produccion primaria o son los factores macroeconomicos internacionales los que planifican la produccion primaria de alimentos?

I think one main challenge is to combine healthy diets with all other dimension of sustainability, be environment, socio-economics, processing and so on. For this, I think there are as many solutions as different situations worldwide. each country has its own problem of health, i.e., deficiencies, over- and uner-nutrition. Therefore, we have to think locally and develop sustainable healthy diets adpted to reality of each country. However, some global healthy guidelines can be defined, then we adapt them to local situations. Each country has not the same local productions, climate, food availability, etc.

This consultation is important to bring together all the evidence that is currently available to support an evolving global food system that can address malnutrition. There are many different facets of malnutrition and no one solution can respond to it. It is important to realize that food systems also evolve with a cultural twist and as such changes in behavior and aculturation become relevant topics to discuss. As governments move towards encouraging a fine balance between cultivation of cash crops and nutritious crops for national food baskets, evidence generation in a pulled effort becomes even more important in achieving this goal. Initiatives such as bioforiifcation of staples supported by CGIAR centers will also contribute to a changing food system in the contect of nutrition, sustainability, price/market fluctuation and climate change. More here http://cipotato.org/ .We look forward to an engaging discussion.

Key Aspects to be addressed within the framework questions listed:

• Effects: Globalization and Urbanization
• Media Claims/messaging/regulation: what to believe (healthy, natural, best)
• Media targeting (children;, global populations drawn toward imported goods)
• Cultural aspects: which foods are acceptable, desireable, viewed as most healthy; who in the home purchases the food, who prepares it
• Influx of processed foods, acknowleding motivating factors (cost, shelf life, desireability by caregivers or children; food as reward, )
• Education: best modality (schools, PSAs, clinical, food labels,etc)
• Controversy over government regulations on availability, taxation, etc
• The realities of effects of subsidies and potential solutions

I welcome the opportunity to be of help as needed. 

Lindy Fenlason, MD, MPH, PNS, FAAP

Links between diets, food consuption and habit

Attitude is a very critical factors that needs special attention when dealing with issues of nutrition and food security. In many instances, people tend to associate certain eating habit with socio-economic levels. Experience has shown that many people who would eat vegetables, beans etc due to poverty (or lack of buying power), show  more tendencies of consuming more processed food, meat, take aways and other 'junk food', once their economic status change for the better. This move is often associated with affordability and thus seen as placing someone in better economic cluster, that everyone aspire. Such tendencies are more prevalent in rural areas as well as low to medium income classes in develoing countries. Therefore any effort for promoting  healthy eating, nutrition and food security should be innovative enough and provide incentives to break such entrenched patterns and stimute attitudinal change that would lead to long lasting change in behaviour.

Lyseconcept développe un concept biotechnologique de traitement d'épuration et de recyclage des eaux usées qui permet d'éliminer entièrement la matière fécale.

L'eau de rejet en sortie du procédé "Fosse Biologique"lyseconcept contient de fines particules de matière organique en suspension ainsi qu'une flore bactérienne active qui en font un élément fertilisant pour la terre végétale

La performance épuratoire du procédé "Fosse Biologique"lyseconcept est de 90% hors sol complété par l'exutoire végétalisé qui lui purifie le sol de la pollution diffuse telle que : urée ammoniaque azote nitrate phosphate potasse etc, ce qui donne pour l'ensemble une performance d'épuration de plus de 98%

Le concept se décline sous la forme de projet

• le PROJET Revalorisation des Eaux usées pour une Agriculture Biologique Productive sur des exploitations agricoles en Afrique Sénégal Cameroun Cote d'Ivoire Burkina Burundi Bénin Mali RCA Niger Mauritanie Congo Conakry Guinée RDC Sierra Léone Gabon Mayotte Inde Monténégro Kenya Ouganda etc
• le projet de Revalorisation des eaux usées - Biodiversité végétalisée. Il lutte contre l'érosion des sols, tout en favorisant la création de zones vertes pare-feu.
• le projet recyclage d'eau- Banque Alimentaire pour une réinsertion honorifique dans le monde du travail
• le projet Recyclage d'eau pour une réduction de la consommation d'eau

L'A.B a une action pédagogique de préservation de l'environnement

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.viadeo.com/invitation/jean-marius.d-alexandris

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=76857248&trk=nav_responsive_tab...,

http://www.creabpa.fr

http://www.lyseconcept.frhttp://www.interet-general.info/spip.php?articl...

El mejoramiento de los servicios de saneamiento, la manipulación de los alimentos y las tecnologías de almacenamiento en los sistemas alimentarios tradicionales podría potenciar la eficiencia y  mejorar la inocuidad y la calidad nutricional de los alimentos.

Aumentar la  eficiencia  en la producción de alimentos nutritivos puede generar precios más bajos para los consumidores de manera que puedan optar por alimentos de alta calidad nutricional a precios más bajos y a la vez, represente  ingresos más altos para los agricultores.

Reducir las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos y nutrientes en los sistemas alimentarios en su totalidad podría contribuir de  modo importante a una mejor nutrición.

Además se debe educar a los consumidores para que puedan seleccionar dietas variadas y equilibradas, así como aprendan a minimizar el desperdicio de alimentos.

Para lograr dietas saludables, además de sistemas alimentarios saludables, se requiere e educación, políticas públicas  y apoyo político.

On behalf of DAI, thank you to the HLPE Steering Committee for opening the floor to comments. This report comes at a critical time and the key questions it seeks to address will help ground the global conversation on the multidimensionality of food systems and nutrition and the root causes of malnutrition.  As part of the dialogue we also need to consider how market systems and value chains interact with food systems. 

Although value chains within the worlds’ food systems will be addressed through the driving dynamics of consumption patterns, we think it is vital that this report examine the broader challenges associated with key aspects of food and market system needs along the lifecycle – particularly complementary foods. The existing body of research indicates malnutrition in the first 1000 days of a child’s life has significant, long-term consequences on educability, adult work productivity, and ultimately income and national capacity. Furthermore, we now know that stunting and its negative impacts are not easily reversed. As a result, complementary foods and feeding practices are fundamental in addressing child malnutrition and food and nutrition within this 1,000 day window are critical in addressing undernutrition within the context of malnutrition.

DAI’s work up to this point tells us that some of the most significant challenges for the promotion of complementary feeding practices exist at the value chain level. In many of the neediest markets there is a minimal supply of processed, fortified complementary foods (PFCFs) at affordable prices.  There are also opportunities within the value chain to better engage and empower women as producers, processors, and consumers of complementary food. To help rectify these deficiencies, DAI suggests that this report incorporate and research market-based pragmatic solutions to increase access to PFCFs.

This report will be a great resource to help further investigate the multidimensionality of food systems and the root causes of malnutrition, we suggest that the HLPE Steering committee incorporate research surrounding market systems, in particular foods tied to the development life-cycle and 1,000 day window.   

Thank you!

TRACEABILITY FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS

Traceability for the Agrifood sector represents a strategic tool for R&D, Innovation and competitiveness. An adequate Metrological Infrastructure is at the basis of food traceability and is one of the key elements for trade, economic and social development. It allows to demonstrate and guarantee the quality of products and services, to promote the innovation of products and processes and to ensure the cognitive bases for decision-making. In addition to the improvement of production both in terms of quality and safety, strengthening the infrastructure of metrology allows the development of research in various disciplines related to Agrifood system with important impacts on Food Traceability.

European approach to food traceability

Traceability has been introduced in the European legislation on food safety as a key element of the "Rapid Alert System", to respond quickly to food safety/quality incidents thereby ensuring that consumer exposure to the affected product is prevented or minimised. Traceability - Reg. (EC) 178/2002 and 931/2011 is related to “the ability to trace and follow a food, feed, foodproducing animal or substance intended to be, or expected to be incorporated into a food or feed, through all stages of production, processing and distribution”. Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of Food Information to Consumers (FIC) is strictly linked to the concept of traceability, with particular reference to the country of origin or place of provenance.

The existing EU traceability legislation is based primarily on the need to ensure food safety. It is set up on the concept of 'one step back – one step forward' along the food chain. In this context traceability is based on a documental approach aimed to identify for each Food Business operator its immediate supplier(s) and its immediate customer(s), except when they are final consumers. However, the traceability requirements need both documental and measurement data to foresee readily origin information, playing on the double meaning of the term traceability (Documental and Metrological). From a metrological point of view, to prove the food authenticity requires the availability of suitable Reference Materials and the development and validation of methods based on the use - even contemporary - of different analytical techniques (including: IRMS, LC-MS , GC-MS, ICP-MS, NMR, NIR, XRF, RT-PCR) with the application of multivariate statistical analysis, and quantification and combination of uncertainty contributions. Metrology permit to develop methods for obtaining traceability and demonstrate authenticity from measurements data.

Consumer approach to food traceability

Consumers today consider the origin of the product in the 5th place in the priority of purchase after taste, expiration date, appearance and price. It becomes a more important element of choice if it is associated with information on the characteristics of the production practices and site, such as: environmental quality, production technologies, highlighting the relationships with the quality and / or the identity of a product. To this end it is necessary to promote research to identify markers of quality and origin (geographical, botanical, of process) and to carry out a systematization of the information related to the territories and to the various products.

The existing traceability systems in the EU, in terms of "cumulative traceability for origin determination purposes" is related to the Country of Origin (CofO) and the Place of Provenance (PofP) Regulation (EC) No 2913/92 and its integrations. CofO and PofP of a Food can be not the same as that of its primary ingredients. Where more detailed traceability systems exist, these vary between the different kind of foods and do not extend beyond a) the unprocessed food phase (i.e. slaughterhouses/packing plants), b) single ingredient products and c) ingredients that represent more than 50% of a food.

On the base of Art. 24 “Country of origin” means that “Goods whose production involved more than one country shall be deemed to originate in the country where they underwent their last, substantial, economically justified processing or working in an undertaking equipped for that purpose and resulting in the manufacture of a new product or representing an important stage of manufacture.”

"Place of provenance" means any place where a food is indicated to come from, and that is not the "country of origin". On 2015 the Commission adopted a Report on mandatory indications of the Country of Origin And Place of Provenance regarding a), b) and c).

The analysis indicates that mandatory origin labelling would entail considerable increases in cost. Voluntary origin labelling generally tends to occur: 1. When there is significant interest of consumers; 2. Where traceability is feasible and at reasonable cost.

Traceability challanges

The issues related to the origin of productions are nowadays one of the metrology challenges for the agrofood sector. Particularly concerning geographical origin demonstration, the study of the relationships among the territory, the genotype and the specific characteristics of a product allows to deepen knowledge and perform integrated and interdisciplinary assessments of the agricultural ecosystem. It is possible to distinguish between “traceability of products”, based on the study of “markers of products” (namely characteristics of a given product or ingredient, that can be taken as a tracer in the finished product), and “traceability of process”, based on the study of “markers of process”. Traceability of products can be referred to both geographical origin and biological origin, with reference to the botanical and zoological origin. For this purpose, different kinds of markers can be used: chemical, biological and genetic. Some markers or characteristic patterns (fingerprints) can be strictly related to the biological origin or the agroecosystem of production, some others mainly to production factors, such as agricultural and zootechnical practices (e.g.: irrigation, fertilization, use of feedstuffs), climatic effects (e.g.: temperature, precipitations), geological (e.g.: soil composition) and geographical (e.g.: latitude, altitude, distance from the sea) parameters.

Research should permit to the production system to be “one step ahead” of the regulatory requirements, need to provide to the control system the adequate measurement tools and to the consumers the scientific evidence for making aware chooses of purchase and adopting correct food consumption practices. To invest in Food quality and safety means being able to place on the market products – or combinations of products – more sustainable and healthy and/or particularly appropriate for an increased consumption. In order to immediately convert Metrology approach in element of competitiveness with practical applications for the Food supply chain, it is necessary to promote information/education measures that allow consumers to make aware chooses towards value products, supported by an objective traceability system and regulation, laying the foundation that permit to establish the virtuous circle of supply and demand of more and more healthy and quality products.

Finally, considering the great importance of metrology for the agrofood sector, a proposal for a new pan-European Research Infrastracture for supporting metrology in food and nutrition has been submitted for the 2016 ESFRI call.