Nutritional adequacy and novel food products

Adequate nutrition is an essential requirement for health, growth, prevention of nutritional diseases and normal physiological functions throughout life. Although there has been significant progress in agriculture, food systems, nutrition science, food insecurity and dietary insufficiency continue to be a significant public health challenge globally. This might be due to factors including limited dietary diversity, socioeconomic inequalities, infectious diseases, climate change and poor governance. This chapter thoroughly explains the concept of nutritional adequacy, its definition, evolution over time and the components of an adequate diet. It also explains the recommended dietary allowances, dietary diversity, nutrient density, bioavailability and commonly used approaches for nutritional assessment. It also reviews the current state of nutritional status worldwide and sheds light on key factors that are associated with nutritional inadequacy in various populations. Furthermore, it demonstrates the growing role of novel food products as an intervention to achieve nutritional adequacy by producing nutrient-rich, safe and sustainable food. Special attention is given to new functional ingredients such as algae, edible insects, yeast, fungi, legumes and wild plants. It also focused on novel food processing technologies such as food fortification, alternative protein innovation, precision fermentation and multidimensional food printing. Conclusively, the scientifically formulated novel food products are a promising approach to improve the nutritional quality of the diet, overcome nutrient deficiencies and provide sustainable nutrition goals to improve health of human population.