Integrating Food Safety, Nutrition Security, and Sustainability Indicators for Food System Monitoring in Low- and...

Area of Science:

• Food Systems Science
• Public Health
• Sustainable Development

Background:

• Food insecurity, malnutrition, and foodborne diseases are prevalent in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
• Existing monitoring systems often address food safety, nutrition security, and sustainability in isolation, hindering effective policy interventions.
• There is a critical need for integrated approaches to monitor complex food systems in LMICs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a methodological review of indicators for monitoring food safety, nutrition security, and sustainability in LMICs.
• To develop an integrated indicator selection framework for context-specific monitoring and decision-making.
• To incorporate One Health principles and indicators into food system monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of peer-reviewed literature and institutional reports from major databases and organizations (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, FAO, WHO, etc.).
• Identification and assessment of 47 indicators based on relevance, data availability, methodological robustness, and policy actionability.
• Development of an integrated indicator selection framework, including One Health interface indicators.

Main Results:

• Identified a core set of ten operationally relevant indicators, including Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS), Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W), Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), foodborne disease burden, cost of a healthy diet, and post-harvest loss.
• Proposed an integrated indicator selection framework tailored for LMICs.
• Integrated three One Health interface indicators: antimicrobial resistance prevalence, zoonotic disease incidence, and pesticide residue exceedance.

Conclusions:

• An integrated monitoring framework is essential for addressing interconnected food system challenges in LMICs.
• A One Health approach, linking human, animal, and environmental health, is crucial for comprehensive food system assessment.
• The proposed framework provides a pathway for context-specific monitoring and policy development in LMICs.