Snippets

Environmental pawprints Posted in: Diet, Energy Consumption, Food Systems, Nutrition, Production, Sustainability, Waste Consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of their diets and lifestyles, with everything from transport to dinner coming under scrutiny for its footprint. Pets are also coming under the microscope, principally for the role of their diets in the wider food system. Most research to date has focused on cats and dogs, due… read more...
Adding value with bugs Posted in: Animal Food Sources, Cost, Food Systems, Livestock, Nutrition, Sustainability, Waste Read article While the idea of eating insects may repulse some people, eating animal products from livestock reared on insects may be less off-putting. Black soldier fly larvae are an insect often produced as feed for livestock, and a recent research article has examined their potential in converting food waste to feed at scale. Food… read more...
Nudging consumer food choice Posted in: Diet, Health, Nutrition, Sustainability Read article Helping consumers to make healthier, more sustainable food choices is a target for many retailers. A recent scientific article has investigated the efficacy of various “nudging” techniques in cafeteria settings. Nudging involves deliberately changing how choices are presented to consumers to influence their decision. In this study, the authors changed how cafeteria meal… read more...
Aquaculture’s footprint Posted in: Animal Food Sources, Food Systems, Sustainability Read Article Aquaculture is a growing competitor to capture fisheries, now accounting for almost half of global fish production for human consumption. Sustainable aquaculture appears an appealing alternative to stretched wild populations. However, like all food production it has an environmental impact, which has been quantified in a recent publication. The authors developed a sustainability… read more...
WHO evidence review on plant-based diets Posted in: Diet, Food Sourcers, Food Systems, Health, Nutrition, Sustainability Read article The European Regional Office of the World Health Organisation has released a fact sheet reviewing the evidence for the impact of plant-based diets on health and sustainability. The document was released in response to increasing discussion of the concept of “plant based” foods and diets in the European region. They define such diets… read more...
Nutrition research using smartphone apps Posted in: Affordability, Cost, Energy Consumption, Food Systems, Health, Nutrition, Sustainability Read article Tracking population dietary habits is notoriously difficult, from cohort recruitment to the patchy recollections of what someone ate 24 hours ago. A recent article in Nature Communications approached diet studies via a freely available smartphone app, allowing a large cohort to be assessed with minimal commitment from the participants. Data from over a… read more...
The risks of dietary risk studies Posted in: Diet, Food Systems, Health, Mortality, Nutrition Two recent correspondence articles published in The Lancet have highlighted some of the challenges in global dietary intake and risk estimation studies. These studies are held in high regard and widely used, so their quality is of great importance. The first article highlights the differing estimates of two global dietary intake studies: the Global Dietary… read more...
PLANET food system explorer launched Posted in: Food Systems, Nutrition, Production, Sustainability, Waste View the tool GOAL Sciences have recently launched their new online tool for viewing the movement of food through the current global food system. The visual, interactive nature of the tool is accessible to anyone with an interest in where food comes from, and where it ends up. The PLANET tool uses data from the… read more...
The true cost of food Posted in: Affordability, Cost, Diet, Food Systems, Health, Nutrition Read the article Many researchers have proposed scores and methods for reducing the nutritional value of foods down to a single number – as covered in a recent Thought for Food. A new method takes an approach rooted in population dietary intakes. There are many challenges to this: which nutrients to include? How to weight… read more...
Complementarity of Plant and Animal foods Posted in: Animal Food Sources, Diet, Food Systems, Nutrition, Sustainability, Vegetable Food Sources Read the article Sustainability considerations are increasingly featuring in dietary recommendations from official sources. The detail of these recommendations varies, but a recent review argues the need to take a holistic view of sustainability. The paper highlights the complementary and synergistic benefits of consuming both plant-sourced foods (PSF) and animal-sourced foods (ASF) as part of… read more...