Abstract
Feed and food production are inter alia reasons for high greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by the replacement of animal components with plant components in processed food products, such as pasta. The main components currently used for pasta are semolina, and water, as well as additional egg. The hypothesis of this paper is that the substitution of whole egg with plant-based ingredients, for example from peas, in such a product might lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and thus a reduced carbon footprint at economically reasonable costs. The costs and carbon footprints of two pasta types, produced with egg or pea protein, are calculated. Plant protein–based pasta products proved to cause 0.57 kg CO2 equivalents (CO2eq) (31%) per kg pasta less greenhouse gas emissions than animal-based pasta, while the cost of production increases by 10% to 3.00 €/kg pasta.
Highlights
Feed and food production contribute substantially to the emissions of greenhouse gases, which are known to cause global warming with serious environmental and economic threads [1]
This paper analyzes the use of two different pasta products, with and without animal ingredients, which differ in costs and product-specific greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions
A typical value chain of pasta production consists of the main process steps: “raw material production”, “food production”, “packaging”, “distribution” and “consumer”
Summary
Feed and food production contribute substantially to the emissions of greenhouse gases, which are known to cause global warming with serious environmental and economic threads [1]. Greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by the replacement of animal with plant components in foods. It is conceivable to use grain legumes, such as peas or beans, as such plant replacement components Grain legumes, such as peas with a carbon footprint of 0.49 kg CO2 eq/kg pea, have been suggested as a very efficient source of protein in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per kg [4]. As cereal proteins are deficient in certain essential amino acids, lysine [8], legumes have been reported to contain adequate amounts of lysine (15.7 g/kg of dry matter) [9] Thanks to their inherent botanical make-up and the basis of the ingredients, grain legumes can increase the amount of protein in cereal-based diets [8,9]. This paper analyzes the use of two different pasta products, with and without animal ingredients, which differ in costs and product-specific GHG emissions
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