Food composition data are useful throughout the food system for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, improved processing methods that ensure greater nutrient retention in foods, nutrition labelling, and to inform, educate and protect consumers through food-based dietary guidelines, nutrition education and communication, and legislation. The FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Table for Western Africa (WAFCT 2019) is an update of the West African Food Composition Table of 2012, which lacked some important components, foods and recipes. WAFCT 2019 contains almost three times as many food entries and double the number of components, with increased overall data quality. Many of the data points from WAFCT 2012 have been replaced with better data – mostly analytical data from Africa, with a special emphasis on Western Africa. These improvements are essential to understanding the nutrient composition of foods in the region and to promoting their appropriate use. WAFCT 2019 is the result of four years of collaboration among INFOODS network researchers in Africa and the Nutrition and Food Systems Division of FAO, and was developed as part of the International Dietary Data Expansion (INDDEX) Project, implemented by Tufts University’s Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. These new data from WAFCT 2019 will support further research towards an expanded and improved evidence base and will support better, more informed decisions and effective policies and programmes for improved nutrition in Africa.

Orphan crops play an important role in food and nutrition security especially in growing economies where small-holder farmers produce the majority of food. Despite their importance in global agriculture and their often remarkable nutrient content and adaptation to challenging environmental conditions, orphan crops have received limited attention by the scientific community and industry. However, the diversity of neglected plant species provides a large genetic resource that could significantly contribute to broadening the biodiversity of trait-desired crops for novel value chains, sustainable development and food security. The uptake of new plant breeding techniques, notably genome editing, as well as ‘omic’ tools, are now accelerating translation of basic research and facilitating the exploration of orphan crops. These advancements also give rise to public and politic engagement discussions to maximize socio-economic impact. Given that the greatest need for food and nutritional security is in growing economies, issues of food sovereignty and sustainability of their food systems become front-and-centre. There is now an exceptional opportunity to tackle some of the major current challenges in agriculture, including climate change, sustainable cropping systems, food quality, and nutritional security through broadening research in wild relatives of crops and on orphan species. This Research Topic seeks to showcase research on neglected plants using advanced molecular technologies (e.g. genome sequencing, 'omics', etc) and new plant breeding approaches, methods, and tools. This Research Topic will also discuss the challenges and opportunities arising when modern breeding techniques are applied for translational research.

Neglected and Underutilized Crops: Future Smart Food explores future food crops with climate resilience potential. Sections cover their botany, nutritional significance, global distribution, production technology, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses of neglected and underutilized crops. By simply changing species in a crop rotation system, the cycle of some pests and diseases is disrupted and probabilities of infestations are reduced. Finally, the book provides case studies that highlight where the adaptation of crops to local environments, especially with regard to climate change, have been successful.These crops can help make agricultural production systems more resilient to climate change. Although a few books on neglected and underutilized crops are available, this comprehensive book covers the full scope of crop husbandry, nutritional significance and global distribution. - Contains consistent coverage of botany, nutritional significance, production technology, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses - Presents case studies of success stories where adaptations in local environments have made a difference, especially with climate change - Addresses key opportunities for improving global food security

This Covid-19 information deck begins with an examination of bats. The most likely bat families to infect humans, bats with coronaviruses and SARS-like coronaviruses, and bat cross species transmission are discussed. We also take a look at the bat immune system, their diet, and the bacteria that inhabit bats. The geographic origin portion of the information deck examines the history and evolution of coronaviruses, WHO origin report analysis, Covid-19 viral match rate, and country comparisons of bats with SARS-like coronaviruses. The mammal origin portion of the information deck examines likely suspects, diet commonalities, energy expenditure, bacterial prevalence, key bacteria, and summation. Land use changes and climate change industry drivers play a major role in disease spread. Please note: An Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (not accepted file format for Google upload) containing enhanced views of selected charts/diagrams depicted in this PDF file is available for viewing. Please contact [email protected] for your complimentary XLS file with product purchase. As discussed in the medical disclaimer on the boomslanganalytics.ca website. This information deck and any supplemental information provided is for information purposes only. If you wish to apply any of the material noted in this information deck please seek the guidance of a health care professional.

This information deck documents an exploratory causal identification process into the asymptomatic behaviour of Covid-19 infected individuals. Six factors impacting asymptomatic behaviour (age, immune strength, tonsils, diet, environment, and smoking) are reviewed along with an examination of documented anomalies. Please note: Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (not accepted file format for Google upload) containing enhanced views of selected charts/diagrams depicted in this PDF file is available for viewing. Please contact [email protected] for your complimentary XLS file with product purchase. As discussed in the medical disclaimer on the boomslanganalytics.ca website. This information deck and any supplemental information provided is for information purposes only. If you wish to apply any of the material noted in this information deck please seek the guidance of a health care professional.

Edible insects have always been a part of human diets, but in some societies there remains a degree of disdain and disgust for their consumption. Although the majority of consumed insects are gathered in forest habitats, mass-rearing systems are being developed in many countries. Insects offer a significant opportunity to merge traditional knowledge and modern science to improve human food security worldwide. This publication describes the contribution of insects to food security and examines future prospects for raising insects at a commercial scale to improve food and feed production, diversify diets, and support livelihoods in both developing and developed countries. It shows the many traditional and potential new uses of insects for direct human consumption and the opportunities for and constraints to farming them for food and feed. It examines the body of research on issues such as insect nutrition and food safety, the use of insects as animal feed, and the processing and preservation of insects and their products. It highlights the need to develop a regulatory framework to govern the use of insects for food security. And it presents case studies and examples from around the world. Edible insects are a promising alternative to the conventional production of meat, either for direct human consumption or for indirect use as feedstock. To fully realise this potential, much work needs to be done by a wide range of stakeholders. This publication will boost awareness of the many valuable roles that insects play in sustaining nature and human life, and it will stimulate debate on the expansion of the use of insects as food and feed.

This book covers the nutritional and nutraceutical profiles of a wide range of popularly consumed vegetables and nuts. The first half of the book focuses on popular vegetables, and describes how higher vegetable consumption reduces the risk of diseases ranging from diabetes to osteoporosis, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer. The book also includes an interesting section on the antioxidant potential of mushrooms. In turn, the second half discusses the nutritional value of various nuts. Nuts are nutrient-dense foods with complex matrices rich in unsaturated fats, high-quality protein, fiber, minerals, tocopherols, phytosterols and phenolics. The respective chapters illustrate how the consumption of nuts could ward off chronic diseases like hypertension, cancer, inflammation, oxidative stress, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease etc. In order to effectively promote vegetable and nut consumption, it is necessary to know and understand the nutritional and nutraceutical profiles of vegetables & nuts. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to students, researchers, food scientists, olericulturists, dietitians and agricultural scientists alike. Those working in the vegetable and nut processing industries, horticultural departments and other agricultural departments will also find the comprehensive information relevant to their work.

In the context of climate change, pollution and food safety, the current challenge is to enhance legumes production to sustain the growing population needs by 2050. This is a daunting task because abiotic and biotic stresses are threatening the growth, survival and productivity of legumes. For instance, the productivity of legumes is documented to be reduced by 14-88% by abiotic stresses. The co-occurrence of abiotic and biotic stresses under field conditions leads to interactive stress types, thus yielding positive or negative outcomes. Legumes react using antioxidant defense, osmoregulatory adjustments, hormonal regulations and molecular mechanisms to tolerate stress. Hence, improving legume productivity requires knowledge on the sensitivity, mechanisms and approaches of stress tolerance in legumes, in order to design new crops and alternative management systems. This book presents advances on bioactive compounds, applications, effect of various stresses and biotechnology-based stress tolerance mechanisms of legumes. This is our second volume on Legume Agriculture and Biotechnology, published in the series Sustainable Agriculture Reviews.

Food composition data provides food and nutrition sector, both private and public with the important guidelines in food labelling, assessment of nutrient intake to determine nutrition adequacy, diet formulation as well as in research and breeding. The information generated is also used to establish food-based dietary guidelines for dietary diversification and food fortification. They also help program managers in determining the relationships between disease outcome and nutrient intakes. The resultant information provides the evidence base for nutrition and health & agricultural policies in establishing how to meet the nutrient requirements in the population through diet. The Kenya Food Composition Tables [FCT] (2018) was developed following international guidelines from INFOODS considering all the required quality checks. It has three main sections: the first part of the book contains an introduction and user notes; the second section presents the actual food composition tables; the third section features photographies and descriptions of foods, to facilitate food identification. This publication will guide both county and national authorities in setting priorities in the implementation of food-based approaches to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the population and support nutrition-sensitive agricultural production.