Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS)

The Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) is one of four Global Research Institutes at Queen’s University Belfast, established to address key, international challenges – in this case, the future of the world’s food systems. Food and drink have become a global industry with many positive aspects – access, affordability, variety. Yet that industry is also faced with a number of conundrums:

  1. Soon there may not be enough food to feed a growing population
  2. The integrity of increasingly complex food supply chains is often compromised
  3. Deliberate food fraud is a growing crime
  4. Climate change throws up complications for the future of agriculture

More than 70 Principal Investigators (PIs) and their teams at IGFS, which grew out of the School of Biological Sciences, aim to address challenges facing each link of the food chain.

  • IGFS is multi-disciplinary; researchers collaborate across schools and faculties (eg. Chemistry, Pharmacy, Geography, Medicine, Biological Sciences) and specialisms including sustainability, nutrition, agriculture and food safety
  • They routinely partner with industry for a solutions-led approach
  • Researchers help detect fraud and develop ‘fingerprinting’; they study soil, crops, water and marine life, animal feed and animal welfare to promote higher standards
  • They trace chemicals (both natural and manmade) and investigate the nutritional value of foods and the psychology of consumer choice