• Nutrition internationale
• Sécurité alimentaire
• Nutrition des peuples autochtones
• Systèmes alimentaires
• Migration et santé nutritionnelle
• Inégalités en nutrition et santé

Malek Batal is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the Nutrition Department at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal (UdeM). He obtained his bachelor's degree in human nutrition and dietetics at the American University of Beirut and his master's degree in food sciences at the same university. He then underwent doctoral studies in human nutrition at McGill University. Professor for five years at the American University of Beirut and then for another five years at the University of Ottawa, he joined UdeM in 2013. His research focuses on the environmental, social, economic and cultural determinants of food choices and their relationship with individual and ecosystem health in several populations, including First Nations in Canada.

Among First Nations, he is involved in two pan-Canadian projects: the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (www.FEHNCY.ca) and the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (www.FNFNES.ca), which measure and qualify the dietary intake and the risk of exposure to environmental contaminants among First Nations adults, children and youth living on reserve across the country. Both projects are funded by Indigenous Services Canada. With funding from CIHR, he is undertaking several projects on food security for First Nations, including a project with the seven communities of the Okanagan Nation Alliance assessing the impact on food quality, food security and health of an environmental remediation project and the reintroduction of salmon into the Okanagan water system.

Internationally, Malek Batal is involved in several projects, including one in Ecuador through joint funding from CIHR and IDRC as part of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease to study the potential of agro-ecology and alternative food networks in the fight against diabetes and hypertension, as a follow-up to the project assessing the impact on food and health of a national campaign and food policies on nutrition labelling, also in Ecuador. In Haiti, he is co-leading a project on the nutritional health of mothers and their young children with significant four-year funding from Global Affairs Canada. Through a G3 partnership http://g3univ.org, he is undertaking an online training project on the nutritional management of diabetes in a developing country context. Since September 2014, he has been the Director of TRANSNUT, the WHO-Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Changes and Development.

• Kenny T, Little M, Lemieux T, Griffin JP, Wesche S, Ota Y, Batal M, Chan HM, Lemire M (2020). The Retail Food Sector and Indigenous Peoples in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(23), 8818.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238818
• Deaconu A, Mercille G, Batal M. (2020). Promoting traditional foods for human and environmental health: lessons from agroecology and Indigenous communities in Ecuador. BMC Nutrition. 10.21203/rs.2.18285/v1
• April-Lalonde G, Latorre S, Paredes M, Hurtado MF, Muñoz F, Deaconu A, Cole DC, Batal M*. (2020). Characteristics and Motivations of Consumers of Direct Purchasing Channels and The Perceived Barriers to Alternative Food Purchase: a Cross-Sectional Study in the Ecuadorian Andes. Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6923. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6923/htm
• Blanchet R, Willows N, Johnson S, Okanagan Nation Salmon Reintroduction Initiatives, Batal M (2020). Traditional Food, Health, and Diet Quality in Syilx Okanagan Adults in British Columbia, Canada. Nutrients, 12(4), 927; https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/927   
• Domingo A, Springer J, Wittman H, Gruhn M, Chan HM, Tikhonov C, Ing A, Fediuk K, Sadik T, Batal M (2020). Predictors of household food insecurity and relationship with obesity in First Nations communities in British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario. Public Health Nutrition.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980019004889
• Sia D, Miszkurka M, Batal M, Delisle H, Zunzunegui MV (2019). Chronic disease and malnutrition biomarkers among unemployed immigrants and Canadian born adults. Archives of Public Health, Vol 77(41). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-019-0367-8   
• Johnson-Down L, Willows N, Kenny TA, Ing A, Fediuk K, Sadik T, Chan HM, Batal M* (2019). Optimization modeling to improve the diets of First Nations individuals. Journal of Nutritional Science. vol. 8, e31, page 1 of 18.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2019.30.
• Batal M*, Decelles S (2019). A scoping review of obesity among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Journal of Obesity. Volume 2019, Article ID 9741090, 20 pages https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2019/9741090/
• Marushka L, Kenny T-A, Batal M, Cheung WWL, Fediuk K, Golden CD, Salomon AK, Sadik T, Weatherdon LV, Chan HM (2019). Potential impacts of climate-related decline of seafood harvest on nutritional status of coastal First Nations in British Columbia, Canada. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211473. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211473
• Deaconu A, Mercille G, Batal M (2019). The Agroecological Farmer’s Pathways from Agriculture to Nutrition: a practice-based case from Ecuador’s highlands. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Vol 58(2), pp. 142-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2019.1570179
• Edde C. E, Delisle H, Daboné C, Batal M* (2019). Impact of the Nutrition-Friendly School Initiative: Analysis of anthropometric and biochemical data among school-aged children in Ouagadougou. Global Health Promotion. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1757975918789350
• Willows N, Johnson-Down L, Kenny,T A, Chan HM, Batal M* (2018). Modelling optimal diets for quality and cost: examples from Inuit and First Nations communities in Canada. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. Jul; 44(7):696-703. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2018-0624 : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30566364
• Batal M*, Steinhouse L, Delisle H (2018). La transition nutritionnelle et le double fardeau de la malnutrition. Médecine et santé tropicales, Vol 28(4), pp. 345-350. https://www.jle.com/fr/revues/mst/e-docs/la_transition_nutritionnelle_et_le_double_fardeau_de_la_malnutrition_313512/article.phtml