Comparative life cycle assessment of plant and b eef-base d patties, including carbon opportunity costs

Legume-derived foods have been shown to have comparatively low greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities whilst providing high amounts of nutrients. However, processing legumes into meat analogues can incur significant energy costs. Here, we undertake a comprehensive life cycle assessment of plant-based and (Brazilian and Irish) beef burger patties. Sixteen impact categories are supplemented with the carbon opportunity cost of land occupation, and benchmarked against nutrient density units (NDU) to provide holistic evidence on the potential contribution of plant-based patties to environmentally-sustainable nutritional density. Plant-based patties have a smaller environmental footprint across most categories, including a 77% smaller climate change burden, but incur 8% more energy use compared with Brazilian beef patties. Normalised scores (person equivalents) were significantly larger (p < 0.05) for the beef products across key categories including land use, acidification, and marine and terrestrial eutrophication. Sensitivity analyses indicated significant variance across impact categories if beef cattle are reared in South Africa, France or the United States, including a 16-fold difference in land occupation. Biophysical allocation of co-products reduced environmental burdens of beef burgers. However, owing to a 68% higher NDU per serving, reflecting higher fibre and essential fatty acid content, plant-based patties are associated with 81-87% less climate change and 92-95% less marine eutrophication per NDU compared with beef burger patties. Accounting for carbon opportunity cost of land further increased the climate change advantage of plant-based patties by 25-44%. A simple extrapolation indicates that switching from beef to vegetable patties in the UK could save between 9.5 and 11 million tonnes CO(2)e annually, representing up to 2.4% of territorial GHG emissions. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Automated summary

Legume-derived foods generally have lower greenhouse gas emissions and higher nutritional value compared to meat analogues, but processing legumes into meat substitutes can be energy-intensive. A life cycle assessment comparing plant-based and beef burger patties from Brazil and Ireland found that plant-based patties have a smaller environmental footprint, but beef products scored higher in key impact categories. Plant-based patties have higher nutrient density units and lower environmental impacts per serving compared to beef patties. Switching from beef to plant-based patties could result in significant reductions in carbon emissions and contribute to environmental sustainability.