PNAS: New Oxford University study reveals environmental impact of 57,000 multi-ingredient processed foods

• New method for assessing the environmental impact of supermarket food

• Plant-based foods have the least impact on the environment

• More nutritious foods tend to be more sustainable

This week, a research team led by the University of Oxford published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) estimating the environmental impact of 57,000 food products in the UK and Irela.

The paper compared the environmental impact of meat and meat substitutes, such as plant-based sausages or burgers, and found that many meat substitutes had between one-fifth to less than one-tenth the environmental impact of similar mea.

Dr Michael Clark, lead author of the study, said: "By assessing the environmental impact of food and drink in a standardized way, we have taken an important first step in providing information so that informed decisions can be ma.

More than half of UK consumers want to make more sustainable decisions about the impact of food on the environment, food companies are setting ambitious greenhouse gas emissions, a Food Standards Agency study shows Net zero targ.

Today's study, led by researchers from Oxford University's Livestock, Environment and Humans (LEAP) Project and Oxford Population Health, used publicly available information to produce estimates of the environmental impact of the 57,000 food products that make up sales in UK supermarkets most food and beverag.

They looked at greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water stress and the potential for eutrophication -- when water bodies become nutrient-rich, they often lead to harmful algal blooms that ultimately kill other li.

Peter Scarborough, professor of population health at the University of Oxford, said: "This work is very exciti.

"This work can support tools to help consumers make more environmentally sustainable food purchasing decisio.

The researchers quantified differences in the environmental impact of multi-ingredient products and found that those made with fruits, vegetables, sugar and flour, such as soups, salads, breads and many breakfast cereals, had lower environmental impact scores, while those made with Products made from meat, fish and cheese scored higher on environmental impa.

When looking at specific types of foods, such as meat and its substitutes, lasagna, crackers and crackers, and pesto, the researchers found large differences between these types of foo.

More sustainable products tend to be more nutritious, including meat and meat substitutes, when environmental impact scores are compared to nutritional value, as defined by the Nutrition Sco.

Jennie Macdiarmid, professor of sustainable nutrition and health at the Rowett Institute at the University of Aberdeen, said: "An important aspect of this research is to compare the environmental impact of complex foods with The nutritional quality is linked, showing some synergies and trade-offs between the different paramete.

In a food or drink product with multiple ingredients, the amount of each ingredient is usually known only to the manufacturer, but in the UK they are legally obliged to provide percentage values ​​for certain ingredients, which are listed on the packaging in order of si.

The analysis draws on Oxford University's foodddb big data research platform, which collects and processes daily data on all food and drink products sold in 12 online supermarkets in the UK and Ireland, and a comprehensive review of 570 studies on the environmental impact of food production , which includes data from 38,000 farms in 119 countri.

A limitation of the analysis is the lack of information on the origin of the ingredients in the ingredient lists, such as country of origin or agricultural production methods, which would help improve the accuracy of environmental impact estimat.

Dr Rich Harrington, head of foodddb, said: "Our approach fills an information gap on the environmental impact of multi-ingredient foo.

article title

Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products