Evaluation of Wild Foods for Responsible Human Consumption and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources

Abstract

Traditional consumption of plants, fungi and wild animals constitutes a reality for the feeding of diverse human groups in different tropical territories of the world. In this regard, there are two views within the academic community: (1) those who defend the importance of the traditional consumption for family food security in rural areas, especially in tropical countries with emerging development; and (2) those who affirm their inconvenience as they are considered vectors of rapidly spreading diseases worldwide. A systematic literature review and an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with experts were carried out to identify the contributing criteria and dimensions in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) that help evaluate the potential of wild foods for responsible consumption in terms of human health and nature conservation. Four dimensions were identified. The first three are: (1) importance of food for the community that consumes it (w = 0.31); (2) nutritional value and risks for human health (w = 0.28) and (3) sustainability of the local use of wild food model (w = 0.27). These three obtained similar integrated relative weights, which suggests the possible balanced importance in the formulation of multidisciplinary methods for estimating the potential of wild foods. The fourth identified dimension is: (4) transformation techniques for turning wild foods into products with commercial potential, obtained an integrated relative weight of 0.14, which, although is lower than the other three, still contributes to the potential of this type of food. The study found ten assessment criteria to evaluate the identified dimensions, constituting a starting point to estimate the potential of this type of food.