The Food Chain: Links between Plant, Animal and Human Nutrition

Abstract

Aim of this course is to use descriptive examples in order to show some decisive influencing factors and illustrate their complex interactions throughout the agri-food chain from plants as food or feed crops via farm animals, transforming, concentrating or excluding nutrients, and technological food processing steps to final human nutrition.

Objective

Human nutrition is primarily based on food production by agriculture. Various natural and anthropogenic factors thereby determine yield and quality of the food formed in a multitude of production, processing, transportation, and storage steps of the agri-food chain. Numerous of these factors may exert crucial effects and complex interactions at the agri-food interface with high relevance for nutritive value and palatability of food items. Aim of this course is to use descriptive examples in order to show some decisive influencing factors and illustrate their complex interactions throughout the agri-food chain from plants as food or feed crops via farm animals, transforming, concentrating or excluding nutrients, and technological food processing steps to final human nutrition.

Content

Contents (open list): - Introduction: From production to supply and consumption - Energy versus nutrient intake: Energy balance. homeostasis and homeorhesis - World nutrition: Sustainable food production, what’s that? - Cereal consumption and celiac disease - Selenium: From Se in soil and fertilizer to human Se intake - n-3 fatty acids, trans FA - Healthy animals – healthy food from animal origin - Quality of food from animal origin (tenderness, fat quality, . . .)

Resources