Food Dishes for Sustainable Development: A Swedish Food Retail Perspective - PubMed (original) (raw)

Food Dishes for Sustainable Development: A Swedish Food Retail Perspective

Linn Torstensson et al. Foods. 2021.

Abstract

Current dietary patterns contribute negatively to greenhouse gas emissions and to the increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Earlier research on sustainable food consumption mainly focuses on diets, rather than single meals. Diets are difficult to measure, which is usually executed through self-reporting. This paper aims to identify frequently prepared dishes in a home setting through sales statistics, and how they can be altered to reduce climate impact and increase nutritional value. Commonly prepared food dishes in a home setting among customers of a major food retailer in Sweden were identified through sales statistics. The dishes were altered to reach nutritional and climate impact guidelines. Commonly prepared food dishes exceeded goals for climate boundaries by more than threefold and were not in line with nutritional guidelines. The content of fat, including saturated fat, was too high. Vegetables, fruits, wholegrains and fiber need to be increased. To reduce climate impact and increase nutritional value, the amount of animal-based product need to be reduced and/or exchanged to plant-based alternatives. This research contributes empirically to understandings of how portfolio management decisions influence food consumption based on sales statistics and how nutritional and climate impact guidelines can be applied from a single meal perspective.

Keywords: nutritional sustainability; portfolio management; sustainable diets; sustainable food consumption; sustainable nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Characteristics of healthier and less land-intensive eating patterns with fewer greenhouse gas emissions (own version according to Garnett [3]).

Figure 2

Figure 2

The 10 most sold protein sources at all Hemköp and Willys stores during 2019 and their relative percentage (of 100%). Data gathered from Axfood’s sales statistics Enterprise Data Analytics (EDA) [28].

Figure 3

Figure 3

Average nutritional content and climate impact (kilogram CO2e) of the original and altered food dishes per portion in comparison with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations [40], the Swedish Food Agency [41,42] and the climate impact goals set by WWF [44]. The x-axis values are defined in percent relative to the guidelines presented in Table 1 and Table 2.

References

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