The focus of the journal is to highlight original scientific articles on nutrition research, policy analyses, and state-of-the-art summaries relating to multidisciplinary efforts to alleviate the problems of hunger and malnutrition in the developing world.
Since its inception in 1978, the FNB has encouraged developing country authorship and offers page charge waivers for eligible scientists.
The FNB also serves as the principal outlet for the publication of reports of working groups and other activities of organizations such as United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) and its Advisory Group on Nutrition, the the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations University (UNU), the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP), and other organizations that have an interest in food and nutrition.
The FNB remains committed to its original goal of disseminating the journal as widely as possible to eligible researchers and educators, and relies on corporate and foundation funding to help offset the editorial costs and subsidize subscriptions and page charges.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).