Food Science without Borders

The recent 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall serves to remind us that sometimes “falling walls” are needed to solve differences not only between nations but also among the different disciplines of science. This need is underscored by a recent paradigm shift in research approaches to address multilayer and multistage research problems. This shift has seen a gradual transition from a “reductionist” approach to a more encompassing “total systems” approach in problem solving. One such approach is transdisciplinary research. Transdisciplinary research is currently widely used in biomedical and health programs and is gaining popularity in other areas as well, including climate change and environmental impact, food security, and sustainability (1–3). Unfortunately, within biomedical research, the involvement of food and nutrition sciences is underemphasized in the transdisciplinary research equation. As a result, food and nutritional impact and its importance in health and disease management are understudied and under-recognized. This lack of representation can have long-term consequential effects for food research, impacting research funding, student recruitment and training grants, publication interest, impact realization, and prioritization (4). For investigators in the food science, this trend is worrisome, as exemplified by the current emphasis on the impact and h-index factors to evaluate scientific performance, advancements, and funding. Areas that have been involved in biomedical and medical engineering with a health and disease focus (e.g., chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine) have received increased funding attention, prioritization, and resources. This has led to a surge in researchers entering these research fields. In addition, it has also increased interest by research journals to publish in these areas. Food and diet studies are complex and involve several scientific disciplines. Within the foodrelated fields, there are food technologists, food engineers, chemists, microbiologists, psychologists, psychophysiologists, biochemists, biologists, statisticians, sensory physiologists, toxicologists, nutritionists, and biotechnologists. Many food researchers have different societal affiliations, publication interest and limited interaction with each other. Matters are more complex in the nutrition fields, with different training emphasis among the various groups – nutrition science, dietetics, medicine, nutrition biochemistry. Food research is often misunderstood as “soft” research, focusing primarily on technology development and application. On the contrary, many areas in food research (e.g., food safety and product efficacy, impact on health outcomes) require both basic and applied sciences. This knowledge is notwidely known, and it is the only contributing reasonwhy the food science discipline is often not included in biomedical research. In an example related to a national research grant review session, reviewers with medical backgrounds tended to underrate the scientific and research capability of food and nutritional experts or food engineers because of a perceived misconception that these scientists lack sufficient experience and participation in research projects or publication in high-impact journals. There are other instances in which recognition of food science as a “hard” science has been under-recognized, despite the tremendous responsibilities and challenges to the field to provide safe, healthy, sustainable, and functional food, as well as safe drinking water and nutrition security to every human being. With the world’s population increasing from currently 7 to 9.6 billion by