Sustainable, Nutrient Dense Foods for Human Nutrition: Rapid Compositional Assessment and Crop Improvement

The field of sustainable diets is rapidly evolving to address the intersecting challenges of human nutrition, food system transformation, and environmental sustainability. Despite increased emphasis on nutrient density as a guiding principle for crop improvement and food innovation, commonly used compositional methods remain slow, costly, or insufficiently linked to real dietary outcomes and planetary boundaries. Recent studies have underlined the importance of rapid compositional assessment tools, ranging from spectroscopy to AI-driven analytics, yet these tools often lack systematic integration into food environment dynamics, consumer behaviour, policy, and processing effects. There remain key questions about how definitions of “nutrient dense” foods can advance both human and planetary health and about which metrics best serve public health and sustainability needs. While significant progress has been made, gaps persist in translating nutrient-focused agricultural or technological advances into actual improvements in dietary quality, particularly in culturally diverse and resource constrained settings.This Research Topic aims to advance our understanding of sustainable, nutrient dense foods by integrating rapid compositional assessment and crop improvement within the broader context of food systems, consumer environments, and planetary boundaries. The objective is to move beyond isolated technical advances and instead connect compositional data, agronomic practices, processing and formulation, consumer behaviour, policy, and metrics of equity and sustainability. Central questions include: What should “nutrient dense” mean across different levels of food systems and cultural contexts? How can rapid assessment technologies be standardised and embedded in decision making from breeding to retail? And what interventions most effectively enhance both nutrition and sustainability outcomes for diverse populations?To gather further insights in the intersection of rapid nutrient assessment, crop innovation, food environments, and planetary impact, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Concepts, metrics, and theoretical frameworks for defining nutrient density within planetary boundarieso Enhancement and validation of rapid compositional assessment tools in real-world supply chainso Crop improvement strategies that balance nutrition, climate resilience, resource use, and equityo The impact of processing, storage, and formulation on nutrient profiles, retention, and accessibilityo Consumer, cultural, and behavioural aspects of adopting nutrient dense foods in diverse environmentso Policy interventions, economics, and governance models for promoting sustainable nutrient rich dietso Integration of planetary health metrics (e.g., GHG, biodiversity, resource use) with dietary quality and food system dynamics Topic editors: Siddhant Ranjan Padhi, Jitendra Kumar Tiwari Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82125/sustainable-nutrient-dense-foods-for-human-nutrition-rapid-compositional-assessment-and-crop-improvement