The food insecurity and the young generations' perception : a systematic review

Food insecurity is a global problem mainly generated byfinancial issues, critical geopolitical situations and constantly changing weather conditions that have direct effects onavailability and prices of food products. These issues reduce capacity to manage the available resources with the consequence of obtaining an approximate distribution of foodall over the world. Food insecurity involves multiple population groups and different generations, including University students. In order to evaluate the relationship between food insecurity and University students investigated from different points of view, this article provides a systematic literaturere view dedicated to this topic with the aim of identifying any research gaps.

For this purpose, a selection of 29 articles was created and the subsequent analysis highlighted the mainobjectives dedicated to this topic i.e. “Food safety, nutritionand health”, “Food safety and determinants”, “Food securitylinked to financial issues”, “Food security linked to school performance” and “Food security and socio-demographic variables”. In particular, food insecurity exists in campuses mainly due to living costs, income and budget, dietary priority;it affects physical health, mental health and ultimately impactson students' academic performance.

All surveys mainly concern.individual University campuses in countries developed or indevelopment and therefore a lack of studies dedicated to the comparison of campuses belonging to countries with differentsocio-economic conditions is highlighted. In light of the results obtained, the authors propose further comparative studies onthe perception of food insecurity among University campuses indifferent geographical areas in order to provide new knowledgeon the subject. [Publishers' text]