Multidimensional Analysis of Disaster Nutrition: A Holistic Model Proposal Across Nutrition, Technology, Logistics, and Policy Axes

Over the past two decades, escalating climate crises, geopolitical conflicts, and pandemics have intensified the frequency and severity of disasters, exposing severe vulnerabilities in global food systems. In this pressing context, disaster nutrition emerges as a vital domain of intervention. However, existing academic literature and field practices often address this topic through fragmented, single-axis perspectives. Nutritional physiology, food technology, humanitarian logistics, and policy-ethics frameworks tend to progress in parallel yet disconnected tracks, which results in a lack of holistic models that adequately reflect field realities. The urgency of this issue is underscored by the latest global data. In 2023 alone, disasters resulted in over 86,000 deaths, a significant increase from the preceding two-decade annual average. Furthermore, the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises reveals that 295.3 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024, marking the sixth consecutive year this number has risen. This escalating crisis highlights the inadequacy of fragmented approaches and necessitates the development of an integrated framework for disaster nutrition. To address this fragmentation, this study redefines disaster nutrition as a multi-layered, integrated food system challenge. Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, it proposes an "Integrated Disaster Food System Model" that brings these different dimensions together within a common framework. The model is built on four main components: (i) nutritional requirements and vulnerable groups (such as infants, older adults, pregnant individuals, and populations with chronic diseases requiring special diets); (ii) product design, technology, and packaging (balancing shelf life, nutritional value, cultural acceptability, and sensory attributes, including innovative components such as microalgae and fermented foods); (iii) logistics, storage, and distribution systems (centralized storage versus localized micro-warehouses, as well as the use of drones and digital traceability technologies); and (iv) policy, regulation, ethics, and sustainability (the applicability of the Sphere Standards, fair distribution, food waste, and environmental impact). By emphasizing the bidirectional and dynamic interactions among these components, the model demonstrates how decisions in one domain affect others (for example, how more durable packaging can increase both logistics costs and carbon footprint). The study highlights the risks and cultural mismatches associated with a "one-size-fits-all high-energy food" approach for vulnerable groups and argues for the necessity of localized, context-specific, and sustainable solutions. In conclusion, the article posits that the future of disaster food systems can only be shaped through a holistic approach in which interdisciplinary collaboration, technological innovation, and ethical-environmental principles are integrated into the core of policy-making.