D7.1 Current and Future Diets

This document contains a description of current diets across Europe and a plan to compose future diets with alternative protein derived foods for four regions in Europe (Deliverable 7.1). The report consists of two main sections namely Current diets and Future diets. This deliverable is part of a set of four deliverables related to WP7. The section Current diets addresses the methodology to estimate the current food consumption of the European population and evaluate its nutritional adequacy and quality, and environmental sustainability. Nationally-representative dietary surveys from 28 European countries were used as input to calculate food consumption and related nutrient intakes and environmental impacts. Results are presented for four European regions (i.e. North, South, West, and East). Overall, dairy products were the most consumed animal-based food, followed by meat, fish and seafood, and eggs. Comparing regions showed that Northern Europe had the highest dairy consumption, Eastern Europe consumed the highest amounts of meat and eggs, and Southern Europe consumed most fish and seafood. Nutritional assessment showed that mean protein intake was comparable between regions and exceeded the average protein requirement. Animal protein contributed 64-72% to total protein intake, which was mostly derived from meat and dairy products. Environmental assessment showed that absolute diet-related greenhouse gas emissions and land use were lower in Southern Europe compared to the other regions. Meat consumption contributed highest to greenhouse gas emissions and land use. Overall, differences in environmental impacts between regions were smaller for energystandardized values compared to absolute values. Based on the current diets consumed by the European population, future diets with alternative protein derived foods will be composed for four regions in Europe. The section Future diets describes a number of dietary scenarios that will be created. The scenarios include (1) complying to the dietary guidelines, (2) lowering animal-based protein foods, (3) replacing animal-based protein foods with alternative protein foods based on a 50/50 ratio, and (4) replacing animal-based protein foods with alternative protein foods based on a 30/70 ratio. Furthermore, the section sets out the different data sources needed for composing these future diets based on current diets. Future diets will be evaluated on their nutritional and environmental properties in the next stage of this project. Results will be presented in Deliverable 7.3 (M42).