Louis-Georges Soler’s research while affiliated with Université Paris-Saclay and other places


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Publications (96)


Liking and sensory determinants of perceived naturalness and healthiness. A study on pizzas with young adults in a natural eating environment
  • Article

September 2024

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20 Reads

Food Quality and Preference

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Louis-Georges Soler

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La transition du système agroalimentaire européen dans le cadre du pacte vert: Mécanismes économiques et points de tension

March 2024

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24 Reads

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1 Citation

Revue de l OFCE

Les systèmes agricoles et alimentaires européens ont un impact négatif sur le climat et la biodiversité, et les régimes alimentaires, trop déséquilibrés, ont des effets délétères sur la santé. Le Pacte vert européen adresse ces enjeux dans le cadre d’une approche holistique. En s’appuyant sur un modèle original d’équilibre partiel, nous montrons que l’amélioration substantielle des performances climatiques, environnementales et de santé des systèmes agroalimentaires passe par la mobilisation conjointe des trois leviers agroalimentaires principaux du Pacte vert, soit 1) l’adoption à large échelle de pratiques agroécologiques, 2) la réduction des pertes et gaspillages alimentaires, et 3) la transition vers des régimes alimentaires moins riches en produits d’origine animale. Les principaux points de tension que ces trois leviers induisent et les arbitrages politiques qui en découlent sont discutés. Ceux-ci ont trait 1) aux conditions d’adoption des pratiques agroécologiques, 2) aux effets du Pacte vert sur les importations agroalimentaires européennes, 3) aux modifications des préférences et des comportements des consommateurs qui les amèneraient à modifier substantiellement leurs consommations, et enfin 4) aux enjeux pour l’élevage dans un contexte de forte baisse de la consommation et donc de la production de produits animaux.


Reformulation of processed foods: Mixed effects on salt and saturated fatty acids intake in France

February 2024

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9 Reads

Agribusiness

Encouraging the food industry to reformulate their products is a possible public intervention to improve diet quality. In this paper, we assess the impact of food reformulation on per capita salt and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) intake, in France, for four product categories, namely, potato chips, fresh pizzas, frozen pizzas, and frozen meals, taking into account the changes in products' nutritional quality and consumer choices. Nutrient intake is calculated by matching data on food purchases and nutritional data, collected at the same date. An algorithm is run to disentangle the specific effect of food reformulation. We find that food reformulation, which is based on voluntary individual firm choices or voluntary industry‐wide agreement in our case studies, contributes to decrease SFAs and salt intake in seven out of eight cases. However, the magnitude of the impact is moderate, except in the case of potato chips for which a much stronger impact is observed. Product renewal has an ambiguous effect, depending on the nutrient considered. By contrast, changes in consumer behavior increase the intake of SFAs and salt in all cases. Finally, food reformulation generally benefits all consumers equally, regardless of income or age. For food categories with consumption disparities, product reformulation can reduce heterogeneity in nutrient intake across socioeconomic groups, provided that recipes are greatly and widely improved [EconLit Citations: D12, D22, I1].


Structure of the partial equilibrium economic model
Agricultural land supply is variable (blue rectangle) and split into three land uses corresponding to food/feed field crops, forages, and high-diversity landscape features (green rectangles). Land devoted to food/feed field crops determines the domestic plant supply. Total plant supply is defined from domestic plant supply and net trade. This total plant supply is used for food and feeding monogastrics and ruminants (other uses are assumed constant). Food uses determine consumer purchases of plant products by subtracting post-harvest losses in the food chain. Finally, consumption levels of plant products are defined from purchases by subtracting food losses at the consumption stage (yellow rectangles to the left of the figure, from bottom to top). Consumption levels of monogastric and ruminant products are determined in the same manner (orange rectangles for monogastric products and brown rectangles for ruminant products). Forages include permanent grasslands, temporary grasslands and non-herbaceous forages; they are used for feeding ruminant cattle. The aggregate of plant-based products includes cereals, oilseeds, protein crops, rice, sugar beets and potatoes; the aggregate of monogastric-based products includes fresh and processed pork meat as well as poultry- and egg-based products; and the aggregate of ruminant-based products includes milk, dairy products, and ruminant meat.
Substantially improving the climate performance of the European food system requires jointly using the three levers of agro-ecological practices, reducing food losses and shifting toward healthier average diets containing lower quantities of animal-based products
Impacts at the farm gate of the three levers and the two scenarios on greenhouse gas emissions of European consumption of the three food aggregates, in percent with respect to base period emissions. Changes in domestic production-based emissions are in blue. Changes in total emissions (domestic production-based and trade-based) are in green. The three levers and the two scenarios are described in Table 2. For more details on calculating emissions, see Methods and the Archive³⁴.
Substantially improving the biodiversity performance of the European food system requires jointly using the three levers of agro-ecological practices, reducing food losses and shifting toward healthier average diets containing lower quantities of animal-based products
Biodiversity damage in European agro-ecosystems in the base period, the three levers, and the two scenarios. Biodiversity total damage (green column) is defined as the sum of biodiversity damage linked to agricultural land uses (blue column) and biodiversity damage linked to net imports of food/feed field crops (orange column) minus biodiversity damage linked to net exports of animal products (gray column). The three levers and the two scenarios are described in Table 2. For more details on calculating the biodiversity damage indicators, see Methods and the Archive³⁴.
The improvement in the nutritional indicators used to assess the quality of European food consumption is fully determined by the third action lever regarding the shift in demand toward less animal-based products
Impacts of the three levers and the two scenarios on the nutritional indicators of European consumption of the three food aggregates, in percent with respect to indicator values in the base period. The three levers and the two scenarios are described in Table 2. The colors are used to distinguish the different nutritional indicators: changes in total calories are in blue; changes in total proteins are in brown; changes in animal proteins are in gray; changes in the ratio of plant proteins on total proteins are in orange; changes in fiber are in green; changes in fat are in blue; and changes in carbohydrates are in red. For more details on calculating the different nutritional indicators, see Methods and the Archive³⁴.
Impacts of the three levers and the two scenarios on the European market of plant-based products; variations in Mt with respect to base period levels
The three levers and the two scenarios are described in Table 2. The food and feed effects are in green and brown, respectively; changes in net imports are in orange and changes in domestic production are in blue. The ‘agro-ecology’ lever leads to a very small negative food effect (minus 0.4%) and a much more severe negative feed effect (minus 12.9%); net imports of plant products increase by 32.7% while domestic production decreases by 46.0%. Food is the quantity of plant products at the farm gate used for domestic consumption; it includes all post-harvest losses that occur between the farm gate and the final consumption stage.
The European Green Deal improves the sustainability of food systems but has uneven economic impacts on consumers and farmers
  • Article
  • Full-text available

October 2023

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267 Reads

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10 Citations

Communications Earth & Environment

The European Green Deal aims notably to achieve a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system in the European Union. We develop a partial equilibrium economic model to assess the market and non-market impacts of the three main levers of the Green Deal targeting the food chain: reducing the use of chemical inputs in agriculture, decreasing post-harvest losses, and shifting toward healthier average diets containing lower quantities of animal-based products. Substantially improving the climate, biodiversity, and nutrition performance of the European food system requires jointly using the three levers. This allows a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of food consumption and a 40–50% decrease in biodiversity damage. Consumers win economically thanks to lower food expenditures. Livestock producers lose through quantity and price declines. Impacts on revenues of food/feed field crop producers are positive only when the increase in food consumption products outweighs the decrease in feed consumption.

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Figure 1 Comparison of tax rate levels with respect to sugar content in the French tax (2012 and 2018) and SDIL designs (in Euro cents per litre). Sources: Service public and House of commons
Figure 2 Evolution of the sugar content distribution of new SSBs in the United Kingdom (in g/100 ml). Source: Mintel GNPD data, January 2010 to December 2019. Notes: The cross and the black bold middle line indicate the mean and median (50th percentile), respectively, while the black box contains the 25th to 75th percentiles of the dataset. The black whiskers mark the 5th and 95th percentiles, and values beyond these upper and lower bounds are considered outliers, marked with a circle.
Figure 3 SDIL's effects on the average sugar content of all new SSBs combined and in fruit-flavoured still drink and carbonated soft drink categories. Notes: These figures show to the right of zero the DID UK;l dCDH estimates of the effects of the SDIL in F UK ¼ 2016, the year of SDIL announcement, ðl ¼ x ¼ 0) and in 2017 ðl ¼ x ¼ 1), etc. To the left of zero, DID pl UK;l placebo estimates are shown. At x ¼ À1, the placebo is normalized to 0. Placebo dCDH estimator DID pl UK;l that compares the differences in the evolution of the average sugar content of new SSBs in the UK and in control group countries from year F UK À 1 to F UK À l À 2 is shown at x ¼Àl À 2, for l ¼ 0; 1; 2; 3. All estimated evolutions are compared to the average sugar content of all new SSBs, fruit-flavoured still drink or carbonated soft drink observed in F UK À 1 ¼ 2015 in the UK. The effects of the SDIL on iced tea category were not reported given their limited number in GNPD for the UK market over the period (15 and 12 in 2016 and 2019, respectively, and 24 in 2017 and 2018). Germany, Italy and Spain were used as control countries. All estimators' standard errors are computed using a block bootstrap at country level (1000 replications). Vertical bars denote 95% confidence intervals relying on a normal approximation.
Figure 4 French 2018 SSB tax's effects on the average sugar content of all new SSBs combined and in each SSB category. Notes: These figures show to the right of zero the DID FR;l dCDH estimates of the effects of the French 2018 SSB tax in F FR ¼ 2018, the year of its implementation, ðl ¼ x ¼ 0) and in 2019 ðl ¼ x ¼ 1). To the left of zero, DID pl FR;l placebo estimates are shown. At x ¼ À1, the placebo is normalized to 0. Placebo dCDH estimator DID pl FR;l that compares the differences in the evolution of the average sugar content of new SSBs in France and in control group countries from year F FR À 1 to F FR À l À 2 is shown at x ¼Àl À 2, for l ¼ 0; 1. All estimated evolutions are compared to the average sugar content of all new SSBs, fruit-flavoured still drink, carbonated soft drink or iced tea observed in F FR À 1 ¼ 2017 in France. Germany, Italy and Spain were used as control countries. All estimators' standard errors are computed using a block bootstrap at country level (1000 replications). Vertical bars denote 95% confidence intervals relying on a normal approximation.
Effective policies to promote sugar reduction in soft drinks: lessons from a comparison of six European countries

September 2023

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139 Reads

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5 Citations

The European Journal of Public Health

Background Many countries have sought to incentivise soft drinks manufacturers to reduce sugar in their products as part of efforts to address a growing prevalence of obesity. Are their policies effective? Methods Using a difference-in-differences design, we compared trends in the sugar content of 10 695 new sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) launched between 2010 and 2019 in six European markets, including the UK and France (taxes designed to incentivise reformulation), the Netherlands (policy based on voluntary agreements to reduce sugar), Germany, Italy and Spain (no national policies). Results The announcement in 2016 and adoption in 2018 of the UK tax led to yearly reductions in average sugar content of 17% (95% CI: 15–19%) to 31% (13–48%) between 2016 and 2019, compared to 2015, while the 2018 French tax produced a 6% (95% CI: 5–7%) sugar reduction only in 2018, compared to 2017, shortly after it was redesigned to provide a stronger incentive for reformulation. Voluntary agreements implemented in the Netherlands in 2014 led to an 8% (95% CI: 4–13%) sugar reduction only in 2015, compared to 2013. Conclusion The analysis supports the conclusions that sugar reductions in new SSBs have been greater in countries that have adopted specific policies to encourage them; a sugar-based tax design encourages more sugar reductions than a volume-based tax design; the tax rate and the amount of the tax reduction from switching to the next lower tier in a sugar-based tax design may be critical to incentivize reformulation.


Modelled impact of dietary changes on the risk of Type-2 Diabetes (percentage) if Guadeloupean and Martinican adults (≥ 25 years) from the “transitioning” pattern shifted to the “traditional” pattern, Kannari study (n = 1063). Values are presented as percentage (%) and [95% uncertain interval]. Values in bold are statistically significant (p-value < 0.05)
Modelled impact of dietary changes on the risk of Type-2 Diabetes (percentage) if Guadeloupean and Martinican adults (≥ 25 years) from the “transitioning” pattern shifted to the “prudent” pattern, Kannari study (n = 1063). Values are presented as percentage (%) and [95% uncertain interval]. Values in bold are statistically significant (p-value < 0.05)
Modelled impact of dietary changes on the risk of Type-2 Diabetes (percentage) if Guadeloupean and Martinican adults (≥ 25 years) from the “transitioning” pattern shifted to the “convenient” pattern, Kannari study (n = 1063). Values are presented as percentage (%) and [95% uncertain interval]. Values in bold are statistically significant (p-value < 0.05)
Shifts in dietary patterns and risk of type-2 diabetes in a Caribbean adult population: ways to address diabetes burden

European Journal of Nutrition

Purpose As the French West Indies are facing an ongoing nutrition transition with increasing type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence, our study aimed to evaluate the effect of potential shifts in dietary patterns on T2DM risk in French West Indian adults according to several scenarios. Methods We used a cross-sectional multistage sampling survey on dietary intake conducted in 2013 on a representative sample of Guadeloupeans and Martinicans adults (n = 1063). From previously identified current dietary patterns, we used PRIME-Diabetes, a comparative risk assessment model, to estimate the effect of potential shifts from the “transitioning” pattern to the “convenient,” the “prudent,” and the “traditional” ones on T2DM risks. Results Potential shift in dietary intakes from the “transitioning” pattern to the “traditional” one reduced the T2DM risk in women (− 16% [− 22; − 10]) and in men − 14% [− 21; − 7]), as the shift in dietary intakes toward the “prudent” pattern (− 23% [− 29; − 17] and − 19% − 23; − 14], respectively). These risk reductions were mostly driven by increased whole grains, fruits, green leafy vegetable intakes, and decreases in potatoes, red meats, processed meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages. The shift in dietary intakes toward the “convenient” pattern did not affect the T2DM risks. Conclusion To curb the increase in T2DM prevalence and reduce this burden, one public health action could be to target transitioning adults and help them to shift towards a diet associated with a reduced risk of T2DM as a prudent or a traditional diet.



Acceptability of a sustainable technological innovation applied to traditional soft cheese: Information concerning the benefits for health and the environment can compensate for a lower hedonic appreciation

October 2022

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22 Reads

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3 Citations

Food Quality and Preference

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Marielle Harel-Oger

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Stéphan Marette

The objective of this work was to study the reaction of consumers to a technological innovation (a radically new manufacturing process) applied to a traditional product (cheese). A traditional cheese and two cheeses resulting from a new sustainable process were evaluated by 142 consumers. These cheeses were first evaluated blind, giving rise to liking score and willingness to pay (WTP). Following a message concerning the nature of the processes used for the three cheeses, the consumers gave their WTP once again. The last two stages of the protocol consisted of successively revealing two pieces of information concerning the benefits of the new process for health and the environment and in measuring, at each of these two stages, the WTP of the consumers. Blind tasting showed that the two new cheeses were less appreciated than the traditional cheese. The information concerning the nature of the processes used did not significantly influence the WTP of the new cheeses but caused a revaluation of the traditional cheese. Information on the benefits of the new process has reduced the gap between the WTP of the three cheeses by decreasing the WTP for the traditional cheese and increasing the WTP for the new cheeses. This information made it possible to compensate for differences in liking of 1 to 2 points on a scale of 10. However, there is heterogeneity in consumer reactions. Indeed, some consumers (23%) did not appreciate the sensory properties of the new cheeses, and despite the assimilation of the information concerning the benefits of the new process, their WTP remained lower than those of traditional cheese. These results show that there is no major opposition to the application of technological innovations to traditional products such as cheese and that information concerning health and environmental benefits is positively accepted.


Implementing environmental labelling of food products in France

July 2022

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408 Reads

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16 Citations

Consumers increasingly demand information about the environmental impacts of their food. The French government is in the process of introducing environmental labelling for all food products. A scientific council was set up, and its main conclusions are presented in this article, through six questions: What environmental issues should be considered? What objective should be targeted? What data are needed, and for whom? What methods for assessing environmental impacts? Which environmental scores should be chosen? What label format should be proposed? By answering these questions and considering the context, the available data, the proposed methods and adjustments, and the knowledge of consumer perception of formats, the scientific council considers that a labelling scheme is feasible and relevant.


Life cycle inventory and assessment data for quantifying the environmental impacts of a wide range of food products belonging to the same food category: A case study of 80 pizzas representatives of the French retail market

February 2022

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224 Reads

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7 Citations

Data in Brief

Most of the time, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of food products are performed only on one representative of a food category. This doesn't allow us to understand the possible variations of environmental impacts within a food product category and the responsible factors for these variations. For this reason, LCAs were conducted for 80 different industrial pizzas representative of the French retail market. The LCAs were performed using the "EF 3.0 Method (adapted) V1.00 / EF 3.0 normalization and weighting set" on SimaPro software. Most of the data used were taken from the AGRIBALYSE 3.0 and Ecoinvent 3.6 databases. The system perimeter goes from the production of the ingredients to the pizza consumption. The functional unit used was 1 kg of ready-to-eat pizza. Life cycle inventories were made to include the different flows in the LCA (materials, transport, energy, water, waste, etc.). The dataset contains details on products, life-cycle inventories (LCI) and LCIA results. These data can enrich the discussion on the need to study the environmental impacts of different products belonging to the same food category and not only one representative in order to avoid erroneous conclusions.


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Citations (58)


... Establishing a fair, sustainable, and environmentally friendly food system in the European Union is a major objective of the Green Deal. To assess the impact of the main Green Deal strategies, such as reducing the use of chemicals in agriculture, minimising post-harvest food losses and promoting healthier diets with less meat, Guyomard et al. (2023) developed an economic model based on partial equilibrium. All the three strategies need to be put in practice together so that the climate, biodiversity, and nutritional performance of the European food system can be ameliorated to a great extent. ...

Reference:

Green Deal Era: Exploring Environmental Attitudes and Ecological Behaviour
The European Green Deal improves the sustainability of food systems but has uneven economic impacts on consumers and farmers

... One such framework is that of planetary boundaries, which considers nine boundaries to not exceed [53]. The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) uses 16 specific indicators as defined by Fazio et al., including the above [20], which Soler et al. classify into 4 categories (climate, biodiversity, environmental health and resources) based on their main impact [52]. These indicators are used during Life Cycle Assessment analysis (LCA) and are not specific to the food system [27]. ...

L’Affichage environnemental des produits alimentaires. Rapport du conseil scientifique

... First, the study confirms Combris et al. (2009) that consumers show a high heterogeneity in perceptions and preferences. This is important for understanding the acceptability of sustainable technological innovations in food products, where it was shown that some consumers are not willing to trade off environmental benefits for sensory properties (Martin et al., 2023). We can show that sensory expectations can play an important role and perform well in models explaining consumers' food choices. ...

Acceptability of a sustainable technological innovation applied to traditional soft cheese: Information concerning the benefits for health and the environment can compensate for a lower hedonic appreciation
  • Citing Article
  • October 2022

Food Quality and Preference

... It generally entails research and development costs. It can be difficult to lower the amount of sugar, fat, or salt while respecting the production costs, taste, and safety constraints that primarily drive the conception of products (Soler, Réquillart, Trystram, Abécassis, & Champenois, 2013). The taste constraint is related to the expected impact of reformulation on consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the product, and therefore, on market shares and profits. ...

Industrial organisation and sustainability
  • Citing Chapter
  • April 2013

... However, labeling schemes are a political tool that is difficult to implement, as they are costly and complex processes. European countries have already made progress in creating legislation rules that implements environmental labeling on food products, as consumers are increasingly demanding information about the environmental impacts of food (Hélias et al. 2022). Examples include the EU Ecolabel and Carbon Trust Label (Cordella et al. 2020). ...

Implementing environmental labelling of food products in France

... al.), and the World Food LCA Database. Among those, a few are publicly available [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. ...

Life cycle inventory and assessment data for quantifying the environmental impacts of a wide range of food products belonging to the same food category: A case study of 80 pizzas representatives of the French retail market

Data in Brief

... Recently, Cortesi et al. (2022) conducted a study on the environmental impact of 80 types of pizza representative of the French retail market in 2010. They adopted 1 kg of ready-to-eat pizza as the functional unit (FU) and the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method to characterize the impact. ...

Does environmental impact vary widely within the same food category? A case study on industrial pizzas from the French retail market
  • Citing Article
  • December 2021

Journal of Cleaner Production

... companies use to market their products (i.e., changes in front-of-pack labels to attract consumers that value the sustainability feature), or how they reformulate recipes to make the products more sustainable, or a combination of both. This result aligns with other studies that have argued that policy measures under the farm-to-fork strategy should consider heterogeneity across countries (Nes, Antonioli and Ciaian 2024, Lucas, Soler and Revoredo-Giha 2021, Grunert, Hieke and Wills. 2014) and products in order to more accurately represent their potential market implications. ...

Trend analysis of sustainability claims: The European fisheries and aquaculture markets case
  • Citing Article
  • October 2021

Food Policy

... Therefore, in this study, there were more nutritional differences between the two recipes than between an industrial pizza and a homemade one. The effect of differences between pizza recipes was recently demonstrated by Adjibade et al. (2022), who reported that substituting a typical pizza with one with a different recipe formulation (less calories, higher vegetable content, and a dough based on whole grain) reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes. From an environmental point of view, as discussed in Section 3.4., the choice is not necessarily as straightforward, which demonstrates the necessity of educating consumers on the environmental impacts of their food. ...

Impact of intra-category food substitutions on the risk of type 2 diabetes: a modelling study on the pizza category
  • Citing Article
  • June 2021

The British journal of nutrition

... Pada kondisi saat ini di mana perubahan iklim menjadi perhatian utama, diketahui bahwa pola maupun tingkat konsumsi manusia merupakan kunci utama dalam dampak lingkungan. Produksi perikanan termasuk di dalamnya aktivitas transportasi dan distribusi memberikan dampak terhadap lingkungan baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung (Lucas et al., 2020). Menurut Juniatmoko et al., (2023), permasalahan lingkungan hidup akibat dari aktivitas manusia semakin meningkat, seperti tercemarnya lingkungan yang berasal dari transportasi. ...

The environmental impact of the consumption of fishery and aquaculture products in France
  • Citing Article
  • March 2021

Journal of Cleaner Production