Innovative Foods: The Future Food Supply, Nutrition and Health

In the coming decades, feeding the growing world population is going to become a global food-supply challenge for our existing food systems. At present, the global food-supply chain has been severely affected due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and political conflicts. These disruptions have led to substantial increases in food prices (e.g., FAO cereal Price Index increased by about 25 points and vegetable oil Price Index increased by more than 60 points in March 2022, https://www. statista.com/chart/20165/un-global-food-price-index/, accessed on 22 February 2023). The global food-production crisis and lack of sustenance affordability can create further regional food-security and political disruptions and trigger further socioeconomical injustice among various nations. Innovations to reshape global food systems through improving local food-production capabilities, enabling infrastructure for agricultural innovation, and facilitating knowledge flow as well as technology dissemination are necessary to curb food shortages and security. Developing and applying new and emerging technologies, including synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, to modernize food production and processing would strengthen efforts to overcome supply challenges in the future.