Eating fruits and vegetables is better for the planet than eating meat and cheese, but a new study by scientists published Monday showed that chips and sugary drinks also have a very low environmental impact.
Scientists analyzed around 57,000 products sold in supermarkets in the UK and Ireland in a major study published by the scientific journal PNAS.
The researchers, who hope their study could enable consumers to shop more sustainably without sacrificing anything for their health, also compared the results to the nutritional properties of these foods.
They found that juice concentrates, sodas or other fruit juices are among the products sold with the lowest environmental impact – because they are mostly water – but their nutritional quality is poor.
Researchers believe that, in general, the more sustainable a food is from a nutritional point of view, the better it is.
The study confirms what other previous reports had already advanced by analyzing individual ingredients such as fruits or red meat.
The novelty of the latest report is that its analysis relates to multi-ingredient products such as sauces, ready meals and others.
This task was made more difficult by the fact that the quantity of the individual ingredients is considered a company secret and therefore no real details are disclosed: only about three percent of the more than 57,000 products sold by eight grocers were fully disclosed.
Scientists responded by developing an algorithm, based on what little information is known, to score the missing products – in the UK and Ireland, in particular, ingredients are listed in order of amount used.
Four factors were considered to assess the environmental impact: greenhouse gas emissions, use of limited water resources, land use and eutrophication, ie the accumulation of minerals and nutrients in waterways, mainly from fertilizers.
Bread, but also certain cereals and ready meals or desserts have a relatively low or medium environmental impact.
On the other hand, fish, cheese, and meat—especially red meat—are high influencers.
“Replacing meat, dairy and eggs with plant-based alternatives could have major environmental and health benefits,” the study said.
But even “smaller” transitions can help. For example, beef lasagne, which have a high environmental impact, could be replaced with chicken or pork lasagne, or vegetarian ones.
A better knowledge of the proportions and origins of different ingredients would help in the future to more accurately determine their impact on the environment, according to the researchers.
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