Nicoleta Cîrstea (Laz?r), Violeta Nour, Andrei Iulian Boruzi

This paper reports on the development of new emulsion gels containing a mixture of olive, chia and algae oil emulsified with soy protein isolate and stabilized by two different cold gelling agents, gelatin (EGEL) and chitosan (ECHIT), and to evaluate their potential use as pork backfat replacers in cooked pork patties. Reformulated patties were produced by half and full pork backfat replacement and compared to normal fat patties and reduced fat content patties made by replacing half of the added fat with water. Color parameters, pH and thermal stability of the emulsion gels were determined at processing and after 10 days of refrigerated storage. Proximate composition, fatty acid profile, technological properties and sensory attributes were evaluated after patty processing, while color parameters, pH and lipid oxidation were monitored in patties during 15 days of refrigerated storage (4 °C). Reformulated patties showed significant improvements of the lipid profile (lower saturated fatty acid content and n-6/n-3 ratio and higher long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid content) as compared to the controls. In terms of technological properties, chitosan was more effective than gelatin as a stabilizer of the emulsion gel. All reformulated patties showed a good evolution of lipid oxidation during storage and acceptable sensory attributes.

Purpose

The main purpose of this article is to assess the nutritional and economic efficiency of food loss and waste (FLW) along the supply of 13 food categories included in the Spanish food basket by means of the definition of a new method which combines two indexes.

Methods

The nutrient-rich foods index and the economic food loss and waste (EFLW) index were combined by means of linear programming to obtain the nutritional cost footprint (NCF) indicator under a life cycle perspective. The functional unit used was the daily supply of food for a Spanish citizen in year 2015.

Results and discussion

Results showed that vegetables and cereals were the food categories most affected by the inefficiencies in the food supply chain under a nutritional perspective, being agricultural production and household consumption the main stages in which the nutritional content of food is lost or wasted. Moreover, according to the NCF index, vegetables represented 27% of total nutritional-economic wastage throughout the entire Spanish agri-food chain. They are followed by fruits, which add up to 19%. Hence, specific food waste management strategies should be established for these specific products and supply stages. Finally, the sensitivity analysis performed highlighted that results were mostly independent from the importance attributed to either nutritional or economic variables.

Conclusions

The methodology described in this study proposes an indicator quantifying the nutritional-economic cost of different food categories in the Spanish food basket. This NCF indicator makes it possible to define reduction strategies to promote the use of food waste fractions for waste-to-energy valorization approaches or the extraction of different types of pharmacological, chemical, or cosmetic compounds.

Dietary choices, a main driver of food production, play a significant role within the climate change arena. Consequently, there is a growing trend on publishing research assessing the environmental impacts of diets and dietary shifts, mainly following the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. However, several methodological issues still bring a challenge, especially in the definition of the function and the quantification of the functional unit (FU).
The FU is the reference unit of an LCA study, and it is the basis for allowing comparison among different systems. This short communication defines the function of diets as the supply of the daily required amount of calories and nutrients, and it proposes a novel FU that accounts for the energy intake and the nutritional quality of the diet. In order to compare the performance of the proposed FU to the most commonly ones used for diet LCAs (mass-based and isocaloric), dietary scenarios within the Spanish context are assessed. On the one hand, using a mass-based FU, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are underestimated, since the nutrition properties of food are not considered, and, on the other hand, the isocaloric substitution does not allow comparison among diets with different levels of energy intake. In contrast, the proposed caloric-and nutrient-corrected FU allows to compare diets that differ in energy and nutritional quality in a fairer way. Finally, it is recommended to use this FU for future diet LCAs.

Recently, important efforts have been made to define food loss management strategies. Most strategies have mainly been focused on mass and energy recovery through mixed food loss in centralised recovery models. This work aims to highlight the need to address a decentralised food loss management, in order to manage the different fractions and on each of the different stages of the food supply chain. For this purpose, an energy flow analysis is made, through the calculation of the primary energy demand of four stages and 11 food categories of the Spanish food supply chain in 2015. The energy efficiency assessment is conducted under a resource use perspective, using the energy return on investment (EROI) ratio, and a circular economy perspective, developing an Energy return on investment – Circular economy index (EROIce), based on a food waste-to-energy-to-food approach. Results suggest that the embodied energy loss consist of 17% of the total primary energy demand, and related to the food categories, the vegetarian diet appears to be the most efficient, followed by the pescetarian diet. Comparing food energy loss values with the estimated energy provided for one consumer, it is highlighted the fact that the food energy loss generated by two to three persons amounts to one person's total daily intake. Moreover, cereals are the category responsible for the highest percentage on the total food energy loss (44%); following by meat, fish and seafood and vegetables. When the results of food energy loss and embodied energy loss are related, it is observed that categories such as meat and fish and seafood have a very high primary energy demand to produce less food, besides that the parts of the food supply chain with more energy recovery potential are the beginning and the end. Finally, the EROIce analysis shows that in the categories of meat, fish and seafood and cereals, anaerobic digestion and composting is the best option for energy recovery. From the results, it is discussed the possibility to developed local digesters at the beginning and end of the food supply chain, as well as to developed double digesters installations for hydrogen recovery from cereals loss, and methane recovery from mixed food loss.

The great concern regarding food loss (FL) has been studied previously, but in an isolated way, disregarding interdependencies with other areas. This paper aims to go a step further by proposing a new procedure to assess different waste management alternatives based on the nexus approach by means of an integrated Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus Index (WEFCNI). The environmental profile of the waste management techniques is determined using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which, in combination with Linear Programming (LP), explores the optimal aggregation of weighting factors that lead to an aggregated nexus index. The management of residues from the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria (Spain) has been used as a case study, considering the three current applied alternatives: (i) valorisation of FL as animal feed in aquaculture (food waste-to-food approach), (ii) incineration of FL with energy recovery, and (iii) landfilling with biogas recovery. The last two considered the use of energy recovered to produce a new aquaculture product (food waste-to-energy-to-food scenarios). The results indicate that incineration is the best performing scenario when the nutritional energy provided by the valorisation alternative is not high enough and the valorisation technology presents the highest water consumption. Therefore, a minimisation in the consumption of natural resources is suggested in order to improve the application of circular economy within the sector. The use of the nexus index as an environmental management tool is extendable to any food system with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products.

El objetivo principal de WASTE4GREEN es mitigar los efectos adversos sobre el Medio Ambiente y la Salud Humana de los pesticidas de origen químico que se utilizan actualmente en la protección del cultivo de fruta de hueso. Se demostrará la eficacia de 2 formulados de origen natural, seguros y sostenibles, cuyas materias activas se obtendrán a partir de residuos agroindustriales, que permitirán sustituir a los pesticidas de origen químico que se emplean en frutales de hueso. Los formulados serán susceptibles de ser comercializados en la UE en las etapas posteriores al proyecto.

Temática

Control de plagas, ACV.

Financiación

LIFE (Unión Europea)

Descripción

El objetivo principal de WASTE4GREEN es mitigar los efectos adversos sobre el Medio Ambiente y la Salud Humana de los pesticidas de origen químico que se utilizan actualmente en la protección del cultivo de fruta de hueso.

Se demostrará la eficacia de 2 formulados de origen natural, seguros y sostenibles, cuyas materias activas se obtendrán a partir de residuos agroindustriales, que permitirán sustituir a los pesticidas de origen químico que se emplean en frutales de hueso. Los formulados serán susceptibles de ser comercializados en la UE en las etapas posteriores al proyecto.

Este objetivo está alineado con la política ambiental de la UE en materia de productos químicos, principalmente el Reglamento (CE) n.º 1907/2006 (REACH) y la Directiva 2009/128/CE. Dentro del Marco Básico de política ambiental de la UE, WASTE4GREEN encaja en algunos de los objetivos del Programa General de Acción de la Unión en materia de Medio Ambiente hasta 2020 y de la Hoja de ruta hacia una Europa eficiente en el uso de los recursos.

Los objetivos específicos de este proyecto son los siguientes:

• Demostrar que el uso de los 2 formulados bioactivos resultantes es más seguro para el medio ambiente y la salud humana que el uso de los fitosanitarios de origen químico, ya que potencialmente presentan una menor toxicidad que los pesticidas convencionales.
• Demostrar que, tanto los extractos como los formulados finales, tienen capacidad biocida frente a las plagas y enfermedades diana de los frutales de hueso.
• Demostrar que la efectividad de los formulados es replicable y transferible en otros cultivos y países de la UE.
• Mejorar la seguridad alimentaria, al producir fruta libre de residuos.
• Asegurar el acopio de la biomasa residual seleccionada como materia prima y el escalado a nivel piloto de la extracción de los componentes bioactivos.
• Determinar las sinergias entre los principios activos de los extractos naturales.

Descripción del projecte:

La relació entre una dieta saludable i un consum d'aliments sostenible ha estat abordada en els darrers anys per alguns grups de recerca. No obstant això, els resultats dels seus estudis han posat de manifest la necessitat d'aprofundir en les sinergies i les compensacions que poden existir entre l'elecció de dietes més saludables i els efectes que la producció, distribució i consum dels productes que les componen poden tenir sobre el medi ambient, l'economia i la societat.

Per afrontar aquest repte, el projecte analitzarà els patrons de consum dels ciutadans espanyols, establint diferents tipus de dietes (ex.: dieta vegetariana, vegana, "americana", etc.) i comparant-les amb la dieta mediterrània recomanada. La determinació d'aquestes dietes alternatives es basarà en la informació disponible a través d'informes del MAGRAMA, informes de la FAO i de la Fundació Dieta Mediterrània, així com en els coneixements previs del grup de treball, especialment de l'equip UC-Nutrició. També es consultaran altres experts quan sigui necessari.

Un cop definides les dietes, s'analitzarà en detall el seu aportació nutricional i el risc associat a malalties de tipus crònic. Aquesta anàlisi es durà a terme de manera similar a l'anàlisi dels residus alimentaris (O2.3), seguint les recomanacions de la UE i utilitzant informació de bases de dades de composició d'aliments (EUROFIR-Food Composition Database). Es seleccionaran els micronutrients i macronutrients rellevants per a la nutrició humana, tenint en compte la ingesta diària recomanada. Amb aquesta informació i amb informes d'institucions com la FAO, s'elaborarà un informe de salut i nutrició de cadascuna de les dietes seleccionades.

Posteriorment, es realitzarà una anàlisi ambiental seguint la metodologia ACV segons la sèrie ISO 14.040, aplicant el Protocol ENVIFOOD i el ILCD Handbook (el consens internacional més recent en metodologia ACV). Les fonts de dades per a aquest estudi inclouran els resultats d'ACV de grups d'aliments realitzats en el Subprojecte 1, així com bases de dades existents sobre inventaris ambientals d'aliments (com la World Food LCA Database) i altres bases de dades comercials (com Ecoinvent o GaBi). També es preveu fer una anàlisi de sensibilitat de les dietes fent modificacions en alguns aliments (ex.: substituir l'arròs per les patates com a font d'hidrats de carboni), mantenint la ingesta diària recomanada i realitzant una anàlisi de Montecarlo per analitzar la incertesa dels resultats.

Un altre aspecte que s'abordarà serà l'anàlisi socioeconòmica associada a la generalització del consum d'una dieta més saludable i ambientalment sostenible entre els diferents actors de la cadena de valor dels aliments (agricultors, transformadors, distribuïdors, etc.), incloent tant els costos directes com els indirectes. Per a això, s'utilitzarà la metodologia d'anàlisi cost-benefici social.

Un cop obtinguts els resultats nutricionals, de salut, ambientals i socioeconòmics associats a les dietes analitzades, es desenvoluparà una bateria d'indicadors de sostenibilitat de les mateixes. Per al desenvolupament d'aquests indicadors s'utilitzaran les recomanacions de la sèrie ISO 14.030, la Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) i les proves pilot de la Unió Europea de Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) i Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF).

Pressupost: 108.900,00€

Projecte CTM2016-76176-C2-2-R  financiado por MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ y por FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa 

Convocatòria: Convocatorias 2016,  ayudas a proyectos de I+D+I correspondientes al Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, en el marco del Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016. 

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