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Food production and preparation affect the environment in many ways, with effects on greenhouse gases, use of land, biodiversity, etc. The impact is influenced by consumer demand and eating habits. Two different recommended dietary models were considered, the Mediterranean Diet and the New Nordic Diet, with quantitative analysis of GHG emissions through LCA. An environmental hourglass (EH) approach based on LCA was introduced to help translate health-promoting dietary recommendations that consider regional circumstances and cultural diversity into practical eating habits, to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly consumption. Using the environmental hourglass approach, we examined whether dietary choices based on nutritional recommendations can minimise certain negative effects on the food production environment. Using two examples of health-enhancing, regionally-oriented and culturally appropriate dietary patterns - the Mediterranean Diet and the New Nordic Diet - we showed that consumption of high protein foods has a similar and comparable environmental impact to fruit and vegetable consumption. The results of this work may provide a starting point for integrated policy addressing issues related to the healthy diet of the population, aware food choices and sustainable agriculture.

We realize that water is a resource only when it becomes scarce. Until now, the issue seemed to interest only the least fortunate countries in the world, but this could all change: firstly because “high-quality” water—non-polluted freshwater—represents only a small part of the planet’s reserves and secondly because of the increasing demand for water due to both the growing world population and more widespread wealth, which spurs more people in more countries to use (and waste) more water. Water use should be considered in both “real” terms (calculating the amount of water used for bathing, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and “virtual” terms (i.e., water footprint), estimating the total amount of water used in the entire life cycle of any product of service.

Part IV: ICT and Emerging Technologies; International audience; Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition decided to repropose an updated food pyramid, involving global warming and impacts of food on the environment. It has been made a reclassification of foods that together with their positive impacts on health also included their environmental impacts. These values were overlapped in descending order to obtain an upside-down pyramid that reproposes the same succession of foods. The new “Double Pyramid” shows that foods with higher recommended consumption levels are also those with lower environmental impact, and foods with lower recommended consumption levels are those with higher environmental impact.Two daily menu were analysed: both balanced from a nutritional point of view, but in the first one the protein is of plant origin, while in the second one it is mainly of animal origin. Vegetarian menu has an environmental impact that is two and a half times lower than the animal protein-based one.

The present study aims to provide a preliminary overview of the sustainability concept when biomasses conceived for food goals become the raw materials upon which different sectors, such as plastic or energy industry, can develop innovative strategies, according to a so called “greener” competitiveness. In the results hereafter presented, the definition of sustainability perspectives, according to the use of a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, will be described for maize use as raw material in different sectors. The current biopolymer industry and conventional biofuel technologies, the so called first-generation biofuels, are the more and more in competition with the food sector. The presented environmental evaluation, in terms of air emissions, energy and water consumption, is useful in order to understand the sustainability of a bio-sourced product, in comparison with the equivalent item produced by fossil fuels.