Global food nutrients analysis reveals alarming gaps and daunting challenges

Eliminating both overt and hidden hunger is at the core of the global food and nutrition security agenda. Yet, the collective state of nutrition security at the population level is not known. Here we quantify food-based availability of 11 essential nutrients for 156 countries using a food production-consumption-nutrition model, followed by assessment of the nutrient availability status as a ratio of recommended intake. For the baseline year 2017, global per capita availability was adequate for calorie and protein but in severe deficit for vitamin A and calcium (intake ratios, <0.60, where 1.0 is adequate) and moderate deficit for vitamin B12 (intake ratio, 0.76). At the country level, more than half of the 156 countries were in various degrees of deficit for all nine micronutrients. Disparities across regions or countries were enormous. We explore intervention strategies from an agriculture-food system perspective and discuss the daunting challenges of addressing nutrition security broadly.