Circularity in Europe strengthens the sustainability of the global food system

Insights into Grain Milling and Fractionation Practices for Improved Food Sustainability with Emphasis on Wheat and Peas

Cereal grains and pulses are staple foods worldwide, being the primary supply of energy, protein, and fiber in human diets. The current practice of milling and fractionation yields large quantities of byproducts and waste, which are largely downgraded and end up as animal feeds or fertilizers. This adversely affects food security and the environment, and definitely implies an urgent need for a sustainable grain processing system to rectify the current issues, particularly the management of waste and excessive use of water and energy. The current review intends to discuss the limitations and flaws of the existing practice of grain milling and fractionation, along with potential solutions to make it more sustainable, with an emphasis on wheat and peas as common fractionation crops. This review discusses a proposed sustainable grain processing system for the fractionation of wheat or peas into flour, protein, starch, and value-added components. The proposed system is a hybrid model that combines dry and wet fractionation processes in conjunction with the implementation of three principles, namely, integration, recycling, and upcycling, to improve component separation efficiency and value addition and minimize grain milling waste. The three principles are critical in making grain processing more efficient in terms of the management of waste and resources. Overall, this review provides potential solutions for how to make the grain processing system more sustainable.

Circular food system approaches can support current European protein intake levels while reducing land use and greenhouse gas emissions

Protein transition and circular food system transition are two proposed strategies for supporting food system sustainability. Here we model animal-sourced protein to plant-sourced protein ratios within a European circular food system, finding that maintaining the current animal-plant protein share while redesigning the system with circular principles resulted in the largest relative reduction of 44% in land use and 70% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with the current food system. Shifting from a 60:40 to a 40:60 ratio of animal-sourced proteins to plant-sourced proteins yielded a 60% reduction in land use and an 81% GHG emission reduction, while supporting nutritionally adequate diets. Differences between current and recommended total protein intake did not substantially impact minimal land use and GHG emissions. Micronutrient inadequacies occurred with less than 18 g animal protein per capita per day. Redesigning the food system varied depending on whether land use or GHG emissions were reduced-highlighting the need for a food system approach when designing policies to enhance human and planetary health.

IV-Range Carrot Waste Flour Enhances Nutritional and Functional Properties of Rice-Based Gluten-Free Muffins

Fortification of bakery products with plant-based functional ingredients has gained interest in recent years. Low-cost fruit and vegetable waste has been proposed to replace wheat flour, but less research has been conducted on gluten-free flours. Rice is generally accepted as a gluten-free alternative to wheat flour but is poor in bioactive constituents; thus, the addition of vegetable-based functional ingredients could improve the nutritive value of gluten-free products. In the present work, IV-range carrot waste powder (CP) was incorporated into rice-based gluten-free muffin formulations in different proportions (5, 10, 20, and 30% w/w). The impact of CP addition on physicochemical and antioxidant properties was evaluated in flour blends, doughs, and baked products. Products were also evaluated in terms of water activity, hardness, and colour before and after a one-week storage period under fridge conditions. The results showed that water and oil absorption capacities increased in flour blends with CP addition, whereas the pasting properties of flour blends were affected when adding CP. Rheological measurements revealed an increase of G' and G'' modulus values with CP addition. Colour was also significantly modified by CP addition, since CP provided an orangish and brownish colour, but also due to intensified Maillard reactions during baking. Muffin hardness was reduced in enriched formulations compared to control ones, which was attributed to the fibre being incorporated with CP. It was confirmed that CP addition improved the antioxidant properties of both flour blends and muffins, with the higher the replacement, the better the antioxidant properties. The quality of gluten-free muffins was hindered after one week stored under cold conditions, so that colour was affected, hardness increased, and the antioxidant properties diminished. In conclusion, this work presents an interesting approach for the use of carrot waste flour as a functional food ingredient to improve the nutritional value of new gluten-free rice-based muffins, thus contributing to the circularity of food systems and to the development of healthier and more sustainable diets.

Research gaps and future needs for allergen prediction in food safety

The allergenicity and protein risk assessments in food safety are facing new challenges. Demands for healthier and more sustainable food systems have led to significant advances in biotechnology, the development of more complex foods, and the search for alternative protein sources. All this has increased the pressure on the safety assessment prediction approaches anchored into requirements defined in the late 90's. In 2022, the EFSA's Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms published a scientific opinion focusing on the developments needed for allergenicity and protein safety assessments of new products derived from biotechnology. Here, we further elaborate on the main elements described in this scientific opinion and prioritize those development needs requiring critical attention. The starting point of any new recommendation would require a focus on clinical relevance and the development of a fit-for-purpose database targeted for specific risk assessment goals. Furthermore, it is imperative to review and clarify the main purpose of the allergenicity risk assessment. An internationally agreed consensus on the overall purpose of allergenicity risk assessment will accelerate the development of fit-for-purpose methodologies, where the role of exposure should be better clarified. Considering the experience gained over the last 25 years and recent scientific developments in the fields of biotechnology, allergy, and risk assessment, it is time to revise and improve the allergenicity safety assessment to ensure the reliability of allergenicity assessments for food of the future.

Preserving global land and water resources through the replacement of livestock feed crops with agricultural by-products

While animal-source foods contribute to 16% of the global food supply and are an important protein source in human diets, their production uses a disproportionately large fraction of agricultural land and water resources. Therefore, a global comprehensive understanding of the extent to which livestock production competes directly or indirectly with food crops is needed. Here we use an agro-hydrological model combined with crop-specific yield data to investigate to what extent the replacement of some substitutable feed crops with available agricultural by-products would spare agricultural land and water resources that could be reallocated to other uses, including food crop production. We show that replacing 11-16% of energy-rich feed crops (that is, cereals and cassava) with agricultural by-products would allow for the saving of approximately 15.4-27.8 Mha of land, and 3-19.6 km3 and 74.2-137.8 km3 of blue and green water, respectively, for the growth of other food crops, thus providing a suitable strategy to reduce unsustainable use of natural resources both locally or through virtual land and water trade.

Recoupling livestock and feed production in the Netherlands to reduce environmental impacts

In many places on earth, livestock and feed production are decoupled, as feed is grown in one region and fed to livestock in another. This disrupts nutrient cycles by depleting resources in feed producing regions and accumulating resources in livestock areas, which leads to environmental degradation. One solution is to recouple livestock and feed production at a more local level, which enhances nutrient circularity. Recoupling livestock and feed production creates a natural ceiling for livestock numbers based on the feed producing capacity of a region. In this study we assess the consequences of recoupling livestock and feed production (i.e., by avoiding the import and export of animal feed) on ammonia and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with and without feed-food competition. To this end, we used FOODSOM, an agro-ecological food system optimisation model representing the Dutch food system in this study. The Netherlands is one example of a region with high livestock densities and resource accumulation. We found that recoupling decreased livestock numbers (beef cattle: -100 %; dairy cattle: -29 %; broiler chickens: -57 %; laying hens: -67 %; pigs: -62 %; sheep -100 %) and animal-sourced food exports (-59 %) while still meeting the current human diet in the Netherlands. Consequently, ammonia emissions and GHG emissions decreased, and the nitrogen use efficiency increased from 31 % to 38 % at the food systems level. Recoupling alone was almost sufficient to meet national emission targets. Fully meeting these targets required further small changes in livestock numbers. Avoiding feed-food competition decreased livestock productivity and GHG emissions but did not improve nitrogen use efficiency. Total meat production could not meet domestic consumption levels while avoiding feed-food competition, and resulted in additional beef cattle. We show that recoupling livestock and feed production is a promising next step to enhance circularity while decreasing agricultures environmental impact.

Establishment of porcine fecal-derived ex vivo microbial communities to evaluate the impact of livestock feed on gut microbiome

Sustainable livestock production requires reducing competition for food and feed resources and increasing the utilization of food by-products in livestock feed. This study describes the establishment of an anaerobic batch culture model to simulate pig microbiota and evaluate the effects of a food by-product, wakame seaweed stalks, on ex vivo microbial communities. We selected one of the nine media to support the growth of a bacterial community most similar in composition and diversity to that observed in pig donor feces. Supplementation with wakame altered the microbial profile and short-chain fatty acid composition in the ex vivo model, and a similar trajectory was observed in the in vivo pig experimental validation. Notably, the presence of wakame increased the abundance of Lactobacillus species, which may have been due to cross-feeding with Bacteroides. These results suggest the potential of wakame as a livestock feed capable of modulating the pig microbiome. Collectively, this study highlights the ability to estimate the microbiome changes that occur when pigs are fed a specific feed using an ex vivo culture model.