A new University of Helsinki study underscores that a shift toward sustainable food sources – such as cell-based meat and dairy or high-protein edible insects – can lead to water, land and carbon emissions savings of more than 80%, compared to typical European diets. This is in addition to offering a more complete range of essential nutrients than a purely vegetarian or vegan diet.

“Recent advances in food production technologies demonstrate potential solutions for improving the sustainability of food systems,” the  authors highlight.

“Yet, diet-level comparisons are lacking and are needed to fully understand the environmental impacts of incorporating novel foods in diets,” they concede.

“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.”

Food-tech isn’t necessarily the answer
Communicating their findings in the journal Nature Food, the researchers looked at novel foods that many industry watchers expect will become shelf staples. 

The researchers discovered that relatively low-tech dietary approaches, such as cutting down on meat and eating more vegetables, make a similarly lower impact on the planet as novel foods.A large number of these technology-backed protein sources are based on advanced processes to cultivate animal and plant cells in bioreactors.

Some of the foods featured in the study were ground-up flies and crickets; egg whites from cultivated chicken cells; kelp seaweed and edible algae; protein powders from mushrooms and microbes; and cell-based milk, meat and berries.

However, the researchers also discovered that relatively low-tech dietary approaches, such as cutting down on meat and eating more vegetables, had a similar impact on the planet.

“Vegan and flexitarian or partially omnivore diets, mainly reducing meat consumption, will be important diet shifts for synergistic benefits to health and environmental outcomes,” affirm the study authors.

“However, due to less favorable profiles in terms of some nutrients in plant-based options – such as pulses and grains – diet-level comparisons with omnivore and plant-based diets are also needed to investigate the feasibility of including novel foods in future diets to meet nutritional needs with lower impacts,” they remark.

“Additionally, studies comparing multiple environmental impacts of diets including novel foods are lacking. Also, a  broadened understanding of the novel foods that best balance the trade-offs in impacts and nutrition can inform the development of sustainable options for future diets and recommendations.”

Novel food developments
Over recent months, a host of novel foods have emerged. F&B pioneers continue to explore and scale new solutions that are rich in protein and other nutrients, while offering significant savings on water, land and CO2 emissions.

Last week, the ValuSect consortium of European insect producers extended €460,000 (US$496,600) worth of services to 18 edible insect enterprises. The seleced companies will get help from expert partners to develop their innovative idea, which will participate in improving insect production as well as consumer acceptance in North-West Europe.

Earlier this month, Mogale Meat Co. created the first cell-based chicken breast product in South Africa (Credit: Mogale Meat Co.).Earlier this month, New Zealand-based Leaft Foods scored US$15 million to accelerate the production of “beef-like” protein – rubisco – which is trapped in the cell walls of leaves. The company is now focusing its R&D activities on the alfalfa plant.

In South Africa, Mogale Meat Co. created its first cell-based chicken breast product, hailed as the first-of-its-kind. The product – composed of real chicken muscle and fat cells blended with a mushroom matrix – is the first of many prototypes Mogale is planning to spotlight.

Estonian start-up The Naturist recently introduced its hemp-based protein crumble The Crump, a replacement to ground beef. But, not limiting itself to just replacing meat, the company also wants to counter soy. Still, its team admits to FoodIngredientsFirst that Crump would “always be more expensive than soy.”

Meanwhile, after winning the first phase of the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge, fungal-based food ingredients player Eternal is continuing its research efforts to support the astronauts’ nutrition on space vessels and other planets – as part of its ongoing collaboration with the Human Spaceflight Laboratory.