Research Activities & Impact

Currently, for most countries, the only available dietary data are food balance sheets from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which provide rough national estimates of food availability or disappearance. Previous work has shown that, even nationally, such data have shortcomings, for example, total daily energy intakes are often overestimated by about 1000 kilocalories per day; and intake levels of most foods are overestimated by 50-200%.  Furthermore FAO data provide no information on diet subnationally, for example, by age, sex, pregnancy/nursing status, or socioeconomic status. Thus, the true levels of consumption of  most food and nutrients across the world, and particularly among specific population subgroups, are unknown.

The Future of Food and Nutrition Graduate Student Research Conference, held annually for the past nine years, is a unique venue for graduate students across disciplines from around the world to submit and present original research relating to the food system and/or nutrition science.

Using the Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) from Tufts University to Illustrate Input-Output Relationships in the Food Marketing Chain.

The INDDEX Project is a collaborative effort between the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and other international experts. The INDDEX team aims to facilitate countries’ increased acquisition and use of high-quality, timely food and nutrient consumption data, which is needed to create more effective evidence-based decisions about agriculture, food, and nutrition policies and programs.