Environmental impacts of protein provision by novel food products
So far, many LCA studies investigated the importance of meat in diets. But, LCA studies or data for alternatives were so far not available in Switzerland. This study investigates the environmental impacts of meals and food products with proteins from plants or fungi (sunflower seeds, almonds, mushrooms, dried soybeans, dried chickpeas, dried lentils, canned chickpeas, soy milk, pre-fried falafel, tofu, textured soy protein and mycoprotein). Several new life cycle inventory data are collected, documented and published. They cover all life cycle stages: agricultural production, processing, distribution, transportation to home, cooling and preparation of the product. The different products are analysed per mass, portion, calorific value and protein content. For some low processed food products, the agricultural production is the dominant stage in the life cycle. For some other products the processing or packaging dominates the result. If full meals are compared, the environmental impacts are often considerably influenced by other food items than the vegetarian protein source. In order to achieve a high biological value and thus a high availability of proteins, it is necessary to combine different products in an effective way. The recipes used in this study are based on such considerations. For single portions this biological value is often rather low. The study shows that food products with vegetarian proteins should not be judged without considering the final use and recipes since other ingredients and food preparation can have a considerable effect. The evaluation of products at the shop without considering the storage and preparation at home is not sufficient for a full assessment or comparisons.
Plant based protein products in the news
The 10vor10 evening news discussed the environmental impacts of chicken replacements.
Publications
Maresa Bussa, Niels Jungbluth (2022) Life cycle assessment of microalgae as protein source : comparison of drying technologies. Parallel Session XXIV (Sustainable Farming Systems VI - Miscellanea), 13.10.2022, 13th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of foods (LCA foods 2022), Lima, Peru
Jungbluth N., Eggenberger S., Nowack K. and Keller R. (2016) Life cycle assessment of meals based on vegetarian protein sources. In proceedings from: The 10th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food (LCA Food 2016), University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin, Ireland, 19th – 21st October 2016. Presentation / Paper
