ArticleThe Journal of nutrition2021
Use of the DELTA Model to Understand the Food System and Global Nutrition.
Article in The Journal of nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Beyond daily totals: meal-level digestible indispensable amino acid score reveals how food groups shape protein quality in vegan diets.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Bioactive Compounds and their Therapeutic Potential in Gastrointestinal Disease.Current drug research reviews · 2026Review
- Overexpression of ZmSPS2 increases α/γ-tocopherol ratio to improve maize nutritional quality.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Exploring Nutrient-Adequate Sustainable Diet Scenarios That Are Plant-Based but Animal-Optimized.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Alternative protein-based foods must contribute to micronutrient adequacy.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2025Article
- Article
- The case for computational and artificial intelligence-based approaches for sustainable functional food systems for sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Protein Nutrition: Understanding Structure, Digestibility, and Bioavailability for Optimal Health.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Improving Human Diets and Welfare through Using Herbivore-Based Foods: 1. Human and Animal Perspectives.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Dairy Matrix Effects: Physicochemical Properties Underlying a Multifaceted Paradigm.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Human Vitamin E deficiency, and what is and is not Vitamin E?Free radical biology & medicine · 2024Review
- Dietary proteins: from evolution to engineering.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Review
- Analysis of global nutrient gaps and their potential to be closed through redistribution and increased supply.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Bioactive compounds for human and planetary health.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Review
- Pastoral agriculture, a significant driver of New Zealand's economy, based on an introduced grassland ecology and technological advances.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2023Review
- Tracing global flows of bioactive compounds from farm to fork in Nutrient Balance Sheets can help guide intervention towards healthier food supplies.Nature food · 2022Article
- Modeling the Contribution of Meat to Global Nutrient Availability.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Modeling the Contribution of Milk to Global Nutrition.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIncreasing attention is being directed at the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of the global food system. However, a key aspect of a sustainable food system should be its ability to deliver nutrition to the global population. Quantifying nutrient adequacy with current tools is challenging.
objectiveTo produce a computational model illustrating the nutrient adequacy of current and proposed global food systems.
methodsThe DELTA Model was constructed using global food commodity balance sheet data, alongside demographic and nutrient requirement data from UN and European Food Safety Authority sources. It also includes nutrient bioavailability considerations for protein, the indispensable amino acids, iron, and zinc, sourced from scientific literature.
resultsThe DELTA Model calculates global per capita nutrient availability under conditions of equal distribution and identifies areas of nutrient deficiency for various food system scenarios. Modeling the 2018 global food system showed that it supplied insufficient calcium (64% of demographically weighted target intake) and vitamin E (69%), despite supplying sufficient macronutrients. Several future scenarios were modeled, including variations in waste; scaling up current food production for the 2030 global population; plant-based food production systems; and removing sugar crops from the global food system. Each of these scenarios fell short of meeting requirements for multiple nutrients. These results emphasize the need for a balanced approach in the design of future food systems.
conclusionsNutrient adequacy must be at the forefront of the sustainable food system debate. The DELTA Model was designed for both experts and nonexperts to inform this debate as to what may be possible, practical, and optimal for our food system. The model results strongly suggest that both plant and animal foods are necessary to achieve global nutrition. The model is freely available for public use so that anyone can explore current and simulated global food systems.
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