Engineering Principles and Business Model Innovation in Food Systems to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals

A food system encompasses all of the processes and infrastructure involved in ensuring a population's food security, including gathering/catching, growing, harvesting, storing, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing and consuming food and non-production aspects. It also incorporates socioeconomic and environmental factors. Food security can be expanded to include nutritional characteristics based on diet diversity, such as vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, eggs and fortified meals, in addition to typical metrics of calorie availability. Environmental, nutritional and socioeconomic challenges in the globalized agro-industrial food system are at the center of political agendas, reform initiatives and sustainable curricula in higher education institutions to hasten the transition to food sociotechnical systems. Engineering is a strong field of study that combines a variety of information and abilities founded in science and technology to function successfully and deliver real-life answers to human needs. Food engineering, as a component of the global food system, bears a special duty to society. It has several uses in food systems such as food processing, storage, packaging, distribution, food security and transportation. Integrating sustainable development goals with the application of engineering principles in food systems and food engineering principles allows for food security and poverty alleviation.