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Integration of nutritional and sustainable aspects is a complex task tackled by a few scientific concepts. They include multiple dimensions and functions of food systems trying to provide solutions for harmonic co-evolution of humanity and planet Earth. “Nutritional Sustainability” is differentiated from other concepts which combine nutrition and sustainability as it not only sets environmental sustaining capacity as a baseline level for balanced nutrition, but also aims for the search of food system driving nodes. It does not aim for the support of solutions of producing enough or more food for increasing population (sustainable nutrition), neither does it contradict other similar concepts [sustainable nutrition security, nutritional life cycle assessment (LCA)]. However, it calls for more definite estimation of the carrying capacity of the environment on personal, local, and national levels for the development of more efficient solutions of nutrition balanced in the limits of environmental carrying capacity. The review is providing a few examples of advances in nutritional science (personalized nutrition, nutrigenetics), food technology (personalized food processing, food ecodesign), and food complex systems (artificial intelligence and gut microbiome), which have a great potential to progress sustainable food systems with Nutritional Sustainability set as a guiding concept.
Current discussions about the concept of nutritional sustainability show a high complexity of this topic leading to many different definitions. Regarding communication issues of nutritional sustainability between actors of food chains this complexity should be reduced. One opportunity to tackle these challenges of reducing complexity might be the concept of ingredient branding. Therefore, the aim of this mini-review is the identification of conditions for ingredient branding application as a communication strategy for nutritional sustainability which might overcome challenges in communicating the complexity between the different stakeholders of supply chains. In doing so, the specific case of agrifood chains is discussed based on the selected characteristics of globalization, increasing consumer demands, foods incorporating credence attributes and price. Along the agrifood chain, a sourcing strategy reflecting nutritional and sustainable aspects might lead to an ingredient branding strategy implying a brand policy for a special ingredient within the final product which is an important component but cannot be clearly recognized by the user. A “nutritional sustainability inside” strategy should reflect the multifaceted information along the agrifood chain and should be based on standardized criteria for nutritional sustainability.
High levels of meat consumption are increasingly being criticised for ethical, environmental, and social reasons. Plant-based meat substitutes have been with reservations identified as healthy sources of protein in comparison to meat. This alternative offers several social, environmental, and probably health benefits, and it may play a role in reducing meat consumption. However, there has been a lack of research on how specific meat substitute attributes can influence consumers to replace or partially replace meat in their diets. Research has demonstrated that, in many countries, consumers are highly attached to meat. They consider it to be an essential and integral element of their daily diet. For the consumers that are not interested in vegan or vegetarian alternatives to meat, so-called meathybrids could be a low-threshold option for a more sustainable food consumption behaviour. In meathybrids, only a fraction of the meat product (e.g., 20% to 50%) is replaced with plant-based proteins. In this paper, the results of an online survey with 500 German consumers are presented with a focus on preferences and attitudes relating to meathyrids. The results show that more than fifty percent of consumers substitute meat at least occasionally. Thus, approximately half of the respondents reveal an eligible consumption behaviour with respect to sustainability and healthiness to a certain degree. Regarding the determinants of choosing either meathybrid or meat, it becomes evident that the highest effect is exerted by the health perception. The healthier meathybrids are perceived, the higher is the choice probability. Thus, this egoistic motive seems to outperform altruistic motives, like animal welfare or environmental concerns, when it comes to choice for this new product category.
Die Herstellung von Lebensmitteln – insbesondere von Fleisch und Fleischerzeugnissen – trägt mit zum Klimawandel bei. Die Entwicklung von Fleischersatzprodukten als alternative Proteinquellen ist ein möglicher Ansatz zur Verbesserung der Ökobilanz. Jedoch sollte bei dieser Entwicklung auch die Nährstoffzusammensetzung betrachtet werden. Daher ist das Ziel dieses Beitrags, ein Konzept zur Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeit, das den Nährstoffgehalt mit einbezieht (nutritional sustainability), anhand ausgewählter alternativer Proteinquellen zu erarbeiten. Dazu werden alternative Proteinquellen aus Pflanzen, Insekten und Mikroalgen anhand ihrer Umweltauswirkungen (Lebenszyklusanalyse) und ihrer Nährstoffzusammensetzung analysiert. Parameter der Umweltauswirkungen umfassen Energieverbrauch, Landflächennutzung, Wasserverbrauch und Treibhauspotenzial. Die Nährstoffzusammensetzung schließt sowohl Makro- als auch Mikronährstoffe ein. Der Energieverbrauch sowie das Treibhauspotenzial von Mikroalgen liegen über denen zur Erzeugung von Pflanzen oder Insekten. Bei der Landflächennutzung und dem Wasserverbrauch sind jedoch kaum Unterschiede zu erkennen. Die Nährwertprofile variieren stark zwischen den verschiedenen Sorten bzw. Arten in ihren Gehalten an Makro- und Mikronährstoffen. Zusammenfassend bieten Mikroalgen z.T. hohe Gehalte an ungesättigten Fettsäuren, Insekten sind z. T. vitaminreich und haben einen hohen Proteingehalt mit für den Menschen wertgebender Aminosäurezusammensetzung. Spezifische alternative Proteinquellen liefern unterschiedliche Ökobilanzen sowie unterschiedliche Qualitäten in der Nährstoffzusammensetzung. Dabei ist eine positive Ökobilanz nicht zwangsläufig mit einer guten Nährstoffzusammensetzung verknüpft. Daher sollte eine Bewertung immer sowohl die Umweltauswirkungen als auch die ernährungsphysiologische Bedeutung betrachten. Dazu ist dieses Konzept weiter zu entwickeln, um eine differenzierte Betrachtung einzelner alternativen Proteinquellen zu ermöglichen.
Currently up to half of all food produced is wasted. The food waste is treated with commonly used methods. Due to emissions associated with biomass decay and extensive transportation and storage necessities, this entails a negative effect on the environment. Modular systems of food waste treatment, applicable for a range of instances along the food supply chain might be a potential solution. By evaluating economic and environmental aspects, this study focuses on the configuration and assessment of solutions based on insects specifically for the conditions in Germany. Insects are selected because of their ability to convert low value food waste into biomass (rich in proteins and fats) and frass which can be sold for other purposes. Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens are fed on side streams composed of brewery grains, potato peels or expired food from retail. For T. molitor, no life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed, as this species did not fulfil the design requirements of the modular system. For H. illucens the results of the economic analysis and LCA show that the system performance depends on the type of waste. The environmental and economic efficiency of H. illucens feeding on brewery grains or expired food is higher than the one of incineration and anaerobic digestion. Compared to composting, H. illucens is environmentally more efficient and economically comparable to the operating costs of composting. If potato peels are considered as feed for insects, the commonly used waste treatment methods show better results in all aspects.
Optimization of important drying parameters with PEF pretreatment was carried out using Hermetia illucens larvae tissue. Three level factorial design of response surface methodology was used for the study varying specific PEF energy input 10–20 kJ/kg and drying temperature of 50–90 °C. Important average H. illucens larvae temperature during the drying process was obtained by numerical simulation from Luikov drying model. Consumption of drying energy was affected more by the drying temperature, than by the PEF energy. This indicated that range between 81 and 84 °C drying temperature and range from 11.2 to 13.1 kJ/kg of specific PEF energy input may be considered as optimal processing window for larvae drying.
Insect production for food and feed purposes is rapidly emerging in Europe, in many cases relying on existing processing methods for blanching, freezing, drying, fractionating, but also seeking for more efficient and beneficial biomass treatment methods. Current study is aimed to explore the application of Pulsed electric fields (PEF) pretreatment of insect biomass (Hermetia illucens) for drying and oil extraction enhancement. The study demonstrates an increase in the drying rate of larvae pre-treated with PEF at 2 and 3 kV/cm; 5, 10 and 20 kJ/kg wet basis. No effect on fatty indices and amino acids profile were determined, but more free total amino acids especially at PEF with E = 2 kV/cm and 20 kJ/kg, were identified in press cake after pressing. Results from this study show, that PEF could be used as a pre-treatment before drying of insect mass to increase the drying rate or to decrease the drying time and the content of functional ingredients under gentle conditions. Slight increase in the oil yield after PEF treatment allows to propose this technique for oil extraction improvement.
The study investigated the potential of pulsed electric fields (PEF) technology application for the improvement of cell disintegration and subsequent extraction/fractionation of cyanobacteria Arthrospira maxima into valuable components (phycocyanin, proteins, oils and carbohydrates). Pulsed electric fields were applied to fresh A. maxima suspension, dried powder and dried sticks in combination with water as extraction solvent and freeze-thawing. Pulsed electric fields application for cell disruption reached approximately 90% increase of C-phycocyanin extraction compared to bead milling. Obtained fractions of phycocyanin and bulk proteins were also of higher purity and had twice lower environmental impact than similar fractions obtained without Pulsed electric fields treatment. Extracts with improved purity can be directly applied in pharma and food industry without any further processing and purification steps.