Food security

Overview

In the Report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (last updated July 2024), the World Health Organization reports that the state of food insecurity at the international level is becoming increasingly alarming.

The development of strategies to stem the conditions of food insecurity is, therefore, one of the most important and complex challenges in terms of international public health. Traditionally, the problem of food insecurity has been associated with the scarcity of food resources and reduced access to food or, more generally, with the problem of malnutrition.

The progressive modification of dietary patterns in the population, however, has highlighted the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon.

Food insecurity, in fact, relates to the difficulty of accessing a diet that is not only sufficient, but also healthy. The lack of access to foods with adequate nutritional profiles, often compensated by the consumption of ultra-processed foods, has significant implications from a public health point of view, reinforcing risk factors for the onset of obesity and other nutrition-related chronic diseases (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, oncological diseases).

Food insecurity is one of the most studied topics within the Center for Research and Studies on Procreative Health with particular attention to the most fragile conditions in the population, including children and pregnant women.