Future foods: Is it possible to design a healthier and more sustainable food supply?

Abstract

There is increasing concern about the negative impact of the modern food system on the health of both us and our planet. As the global population continues to increase, we need to feed everyone without irreparably harming the environment. Moreover, the food produced should be affordable, convenient, safe, nutritious and sustainable. This article reviews some of the recent technological advances being employed to design foods to improve their healthiness and sustainability. In particular, emphasis is placed on how processed foods can be redesigned to make them healthier by altering the nature and structural organisation of their constituents to modulate the way they behave inside our bodies. This includes reducing the levels of undesirable food constituents, such as saturated fat, salt and sugar, as well as incorporating health‐promoting ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, bioactive compounds, prebiotics and probiotics. Moreover, foods are being designed to be masticated and digested more slowly or to release their constituents at particular locations along our gastrointestinal tract, which may help to fight obesity and diabetes by reducing appetite. A focus will also be placed on some of the new technologies being developed to create alternatives to animal products, such as meat, milk and egg, which should reduce the amount of meat consumed and alleviate some of its negative impacts on our environment.

The search for blue transitions in aquaculture‐dominant countries

“…Numerous products have been developed in recent years as sustainable alternatives to existing foods, predominantly animal source foods that tend to be of most environmental concern. Plant‐based milks and meats, fungus‐derived mycoproteins and more recently cell‐based meat and fish are a few examples that have been, or are being, developed with the aim of displacing mainstream forms of animal protein (Halpern et al., 2021; McClements, 2020; Parodi et al., 2018). While none of these products are currently produced at anywhere near the scale of existing alternatives, the examples we, and others, highlight from aquaculture present a cautionary tale of the risks from consumer substitution‐driven interventions.…”

A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Supporting Consumer Motivations for Alternative Proteins

“…Life-cycle analyses (LCAs) have shown animal-based meat products to require 11 times more fossil energy than similar PBMAs or insect-based alternatives [ 118 , 119 ]. The Beyond Burger produces 90% less GHG and requires 46% less energy, 93% less land, and 9% less water for production [ 120 ], with similar reductions observed for the Impossible Burger [ 121 ].…”

“…However, alternative proteins are not equivalent in their reduction of environmental impact. Despite faring better than cow’s milk in terms of pesticide use and fossil fuel depletion, almond alternatives use 93 times more water [ 119 , 123 ]. Purifying plant proteins is also resource-intensive as it requires use of acids and large amounts of water and energy in return for a low yield [ 124 ].…”

Review: use of fruits and vegetables in processed foods: consumption trends and technological impacts.

“…While global population keeps growing, we have to feed everyone without irreparably harming the environment. In addition, processed food must have accessible, convenient, safe, nutritive, and sustainable features (McClements, 2020).…”