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Health, Nutrition, and Sustainability

Exploring Unconventional Food Sources Volume 1

  • 1st Edition - November 7, 2025
  • Latest edition
  • Editors: Tanmay Sarkar, Slim Smaoui
  • Language: English

Evolving dietary preferences, increasing concerns over food security and a growing awareness of the negative impact traditional food production practices have on the environment,… Read more

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Description

Evolving dietary preferences, increasing concerns over food security and a growing awareness of the negative impact traditional food production practices have on the environment, have caused a major shift in the food landscape. Health, Nutrition and Sustainability: Exploring Unconventional Food Sources, Volume 1, addresses the surge in interest in exploring unconventional and alternative food sources that can diversify diets and become new sources of sustainable foods. From the underutilized to the lesser known, these foods are prime to improve nutrition and reduce ecological and carbon footprints. Health, Nutrition and Sustainability: Exploring Unconventional Food Sources, Volume 1, introduces readers to untapped food sources such as novel grains and seeds, underutilized fruits and vegetables, rare spices and herbs, edible invasives and edible flowers, and seaweed and microalgae and highlight their bioactive components and nutritional values. Through topics such as waste valorization, precision agriculture, organic farming and climate-smart agriculture strategies, the book also demonstrates how adaptation of underutilized plant foods play a crucial role in meeting global food security while minimizing environmental impact. The authors also navigate the readers through the safety and toxicity of these foods. A complementary volume highlighting the dietary, sensory, and gastronomic applications of unconventional foods and how they can enhance future product development is also available.

Key features

  • Explores nutritional and sustainable aspects of unconventional food sources
  • Discusses ethical sourcing and environmental benefits of alternative food sources
  • Highlights innovative approaches to waste valorization by repurposing food byproducts as a source for future foods
  • Uncovers nutritional potential and bioactive components of edible flowers
  • Provides insights to the safety and toxicity of unconventional food sources

Readership

Researchers working in the food sciences across the fields of nutrition, agri-food, plant science, food waste, and alternative protein sources

Table of contents

Section 1: Navigating an Unconventional Landscape

1. Ethical Sourcing and Food Systems: Environmental Benefits and Impact

2. Edible Invasives: Harvesting Flavor from Invasive Species

3. Heritage Crops and Forgotten Foods: Rediscovering Ancient Grains and Varieties

4. Medicinal Foods: Nourishing the Body and Mind

5. Forgotten Fermented Foods and Beverages: From Global Traditions to Modern Delicacies

6. Cultured Meat: Lab-Grown Delicacies

7. Wild Foraging: Exploring Nature's Edible Offerings

8. Plant-Based Proteins: Beyond Meat and Beans

9. Toxicity and safety analysis of alternative food sources

Section 2: Grains, Seeds, Fruits and Vegetables

10. Novel Grains and Seeds: Unlocking Nutritional Potential

11. Unconventional legumes and oil seeds

12. Underutilized Fruits and Vegetables

13. Culinary Potential of Edible Flowers: A Botanical and Gastronomic Exploration

Section 3: Spices and Roots

14. Wild medicinal plants: source of novel bioactives

15. Exopolysaccharide: Sustainable future food source

16. Plant roots as unconventional food source

17. Rare and unconventional spices and herbs

Section 4: Entomophagy, Microalgae and Seaweed

18. Insects as Protein Powerhouses

19. Entomophagy and Food Security: The Role of Insects in Future Food Systems

20. Microalgae: The Nutritional Green Gold

21. Seaweeds and Aquatic Delights

22. Marine food source for sustainable future

Section 5: Waste Valorization

23. Plant based waste as a source of future foods

24. Fish based waste as a source of future foods

25. Animal waste as a source of future foods

26. Repurposing Byproducts: Finding Value in Food Processing Waste

27. Innovative Approaches to Food Waste Reduction: Technological Solutions and Initiatives

Section 6: Sustainable Agriculture and Future Prospects

28. Sustainable Agriculture Fundamentals

29. Precision Agriculture and Unconventional Food Sources

30. Organic Farming and Unconventional Ingredients

31. Environmental Impacts of Unconventional Food Production

32. Role of Emerging Technologies in Agriculture

33. Integrating Sustainable Practices in Climate-Smart Agriculture and Adaptation Strategies

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: November 13, 2025
  • Language: English

About the editors

TS

Tanmay Sarkar

Dr. Tanmay Sarkar is currently working as a Lecturer in the Government of West Bengal. With 9 years of experience in both teaching and research, his areas of interest include bioactive components from natural sources, ethnic foods, mathematical modeling, and phytochemicals. He is an editor for several SCI, SCIE, and Scopus- indexed journals and has edited numerous books with Elsevier and Springer.

Affiliations and expertise
Lecturer, Government of West Bengal, India

SS

Slim Smaoui

Dr. Smaoui works as an Associate Professor in the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax. He supervises research for the development of new healthier meat products, the use of agro-food industry by-products as potential sources to obtain valuable and bioactive compounds and the development of functional foods. He deals with meat quality and safety, analytical chemistry applied to food analysis, and research and development and analytical method validation by the application of chemometric techniques.

Affiliations and expertise
Associate Professor, Centre of Biotechnology University of Sfax, Tunisia

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