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Abstract and Figures

Global food systems face the challenge of providing healthy and adequate nutrition through sustainable means, which is exacerbated by climate change and increasing protein demand by the world’s growing population. Recent advances in novel food production technologies demonstrate potential solutions for improving the sustainability of food systems. Yet, diet-level comparisons are lacking and are needed to fully understand the environmental impacts of incorporating novel foods in diets. Here we estimate the possible reductions in global warming potential, water use and land use by replacing animal-source foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Using a linear programming model, we optimized omnivore, vegan and novel food diets for minimum environmental impacts with nutrition and feasible consumption constraints. Replacing animal-source foods in current diets with novel foods reduced all environmental impacts by over 80% and still met nutrition and feasible consumption constraints. The environmental impacts of more sustainable diets vary across regions. Using linear optimization, this study compares the reductions of global warming potential, water use and land use associated with the replacement of animal-sourced foods with novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Three diet types were considered to meet nutritional adequacy and consumption constraints.
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Articles
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00489-9
1Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 2Helsinki Institute of Sustainability
Sciences (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 3Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 4Ruralia Institute,
Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Mikkeli, Finland. 5Department of Built Environment, School of Engineering, Aalto University,
Helsinki, Finland. 6Natural Resources Institute Finland, Helsinki, Finland. e-mail: rachel.mazac@helsinki.fi
Burgeoning food demands from growing and urbanizing
populations, paralleled with increases in the consumption
of animal-source foods (ASFs), drive an ever-larger pressure
from food systems on the environment1,2. While causing one third
of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions globally3, agriculture is
also the leading contributor to the Earth system surpassing planetary
boundaries in biodiversity loss and nutrient flows2. Concurrently,
the additional burden of malnutrition, associated with poor or insuf-
ficient diets, further indicates that food systems are failing to meet
health needs4. Such recent research has catalysed broad conclusions
that urgently compel transitions towards sustainable diets57.
Many products, here termed ‘novel/future foods’ (NFFs), have the
potential to reduce environmental impacts of diets while meeting
essential nutritional needs in broader populations8. Novel foods are
those produced from new production technologies or that are under
novel regulatory frameworks such as cell-culturing technologies—
cultured meat, eggs, milk, plants, algae, bacteria and fungi9. Future
foods are those for which our production capacity has the potential to
scale up and/or for which consumption may increase due to emerg-
ing climate change mitigation concerns, such as insects and spirulina;
some foods may overlap in both the novel and future categories, such
as mussels (Mytilus spp.) or chlorella (Chlorella vulgaris) produced
with novel technologies8. Such NFFs may provide nutritious alterna-
tives to ASFs while meeting multiple sustainability goals8,9. Compared
with currently available plant-based protein-rich (PBPR) options
such as legumes, pulses and grains, NFFs can have a more complete
array of essential nutrients such as protein, calcium, vitamin B12 and
omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, they are more land-
and water-efficient than current ASFs8. Additionally, alternative forti-
fied food products can be developed, but the taste and texture of meat
are key drivers in the development of cultured meat in particular10.
In this paper, we combine novel and future foods into a selection of
NFFs for which data on environmental impacts are available8.
Studies on alternative dietary pattern scenarios (for example,
vegetarian, vegan or flexitarian)1113 or currently consumed dietary
patterns (for example, Mediterranean or New Nordic diets)1416 con-
firm that large shifts from current diets towards more plant-based
diets are needed. Vegan and flexitarian or partially omnivore diets,
mainly reducing meat consumption, will be important diet shifts
for synergistic benefits to health and environmental outcomes17,18.
However, due to less favourable profiles in terms of some nutrients
in plant-based options such as pulses and grains, diet-level com-
parisons with omnivore and plant-based diets are also needed to
investigate the feasibility of including NFFs in future diets to meet
nutritional needs with lower impacts. Additionally, studies compar-
ing multiple environmental impacts of diets including NFFs are l ack-
ing, and a broadened understanding of the NFFs that best balance
the trade-offs in impacts and nutrition can inform the development
of sustainable options for future diets and recommendations18,19.
Here we estimated the prospect of reducing the global warm-
ing potential (GWP), scarcity-weighted water use (WU) and land
use (LU) of current European diets (CDs). More specifically, we
optimized the average European diet according to three diet types,
which varied in their inclusion of ASFs, PBPR alternatives and NFFs.
All NFF, omnivore (OMN) and vegan (VEG) diets were optimized
to meet nutritional adequacy and feasible consumption constraints.
Results
Current average and optimized diets. Some food groups were
consistently decreased in the optimized diets, irrespective of mini-
mized objective function—notably, all beverages, dairy, meats, fish/
seafood, animal fats, starchy roots/tubers and spices/condiments
Incorporation of novel foods in European diets can
reduce global warming potential, water use and
land use by over 80%
Rachel Mazac 1,2 ✉ , Jelena Meinilä3, Liisa Korkalo 2,3, Natasha Järviö 1,2,4, Mika Jalava 5 and
Hanna L. Tuomisto 1,2,6
Global food systems face the challenge of providing healthy and adequate nutrition through sustainable means, which is exac-
erbated by climate change and increasing protein demand by the world’s growing population. Recent advances in novel food
production technologies demonstrate potential solutions for improving the sustainability of food systems. Yet, diet-level com-
parisons are lacking and are needed to fully understand the environmental impacts of incorporating novel foods in diets. Here
we estimate the possible reductions in global warming potential, water use and land use by replacing animal-source foods with
novel or plant-based foods in European diets. Using a linear programming model, we optimized omnivore, vegan and novel food
diets for minimum environmental impacts with nutrition and feasible consumption constraints. Replacing animal-source foods
in current diets with novel foods reduced all environmental impacts by over 80% and still met nutrition and feasible consump-
tion constraints.
NATURE FOOD | VOL 3 | APRIL 2022 | 286–293 | www.nature.com/natfood
286
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... can be redirected to provide food for humans instead of for livestock. Overall, replacing animal-source foods with plant-based and novel alternatives (e.g., labgrown meat) would reduce animal agriculture's environmental impact by over 80% (in terms of land/water use and global warming potential) [30]. This study used a linear programming model to reduce the environmental impacts of the current European diet, taking into account water and land use, and global warming potential while adhering to nutritional needs and consumption constraints [30]. ...
... Overall, replacing animal-source foods with plant-based and novel alternatives (e.g., labgrown meat) would reduce animal agriculture's environmental impact by over 80% (in terms of land/water use and global warming potential) [30]. This study used a linear programming model to reduce the environmental impacts of the current European diet, taking into account water and land use, and global warming potential while adhering to nutritional needs and consumption constraints [30]. Having more plant food available for humans can reduce world hunger and food insecurities, while preserving biodiversity and vital ecosystems [8,21]. ...
... novel foods developed to mimic the taste/consistency of animal products), and lab-cultured meat products (also referred to as "clean meat" or "future foods") [8,50,54,55]. Replacing animal products with plant, novel, and future foods will reduce the environmental impact of animal agriculture in terms of global warming potential, and use of land and water by up to 80% [30]. Even animal products with the lowest impact (e.g., eggs, poultry) have a greater impact on climate change than do plant foods, and this alone points to a need for fundamental dietary change [29]. ...
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... Alternative meat (AltMeat), a class of human food that includes plant-based meat (PBM) and cultured meats, is a recent radical innovation with the potential, if scaled up, to bring significant environmental, dietary, and economic benefits (Post et al., 2020;Mazac et al., 2022;Dueñas-Ocampo et al., 2023;Mylan et al., 2023). AltMeat potentially reduces the need for animal meat and for its very large animal feed requirements. ...
... For proper policy and global welfare analysis, our findings should not be evaluated in isolation but jointly with the extensive literature on the likely benefits associated with more sustainable meat production (Santo et al., 2020). In particular, lower demand for animal feed crops might slow, or even revert, land-use changes (Wright and Wimberly, 2013;Mazac et al., 2022). AltMeat growth could mitigate environmental stress . ...
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... Using linear programming optimisations, Mazac et al. modelled sustainable European diets using the EFSA Comprehensive Food Consumption Database from 22 European Union countries and the LCA inventory data for food from the French database AGRIBALYSE, and for novel/future foods from recently published literature (66). The aim was to optimise diets that meet the recommended daily nutrient intakes, assuming unchanged energy intake, as well as to minimise environmental impacts (GHGE, arable land use as m 2 eq., and consumptive water use, that is, consumed water that will not return to the watershed). ...
... All environmental impacts decreased (up to 80%) with and without novel foods. In all modelled diets, large increases in fortified liquid plant-based products were needed to meet calcium and vitamin D requirements (66). Without supplements, the vegan diet was inadequate in vitamins D and B12. ...
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... For the "reduce expenditure", it is of priority that new foods with low resource costs are discovered to replace the existing popular but energy-intensive ones (Figure 3c,d), as the foodstuff caused one-third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions globally (Crippa et al., 2021). A recent programming model evaluated the environmental impact of replacing animal-source foods with plant-based proteins and novel food alternatives, finding this shift could reduce global warming potential, water usage, and land use by over 80% (Mazac et al., 2022). Notably, removing meat alone accounted for almost 60% of the energy savings and environmental benefits (Tyszler et al., 2016). ...
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... Recent literature shows that novel foods 1 (NFs) such as insects, seaweed and cultured meat could lead to significant environmental benefits while guaranteeing the intake of essential micronutrients (Parodi et al., 2018). For example, if European consumers replace animal-sourced foods with these novel foods, the environmental impacts might be reduced by more than 80% while meeting nutritional requirements (Mazac et al., 2022). ...
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