The design and development of a dashboard for improving sustainable healthy food choices

Over the last decade, several digital tools have been designed to provide consumers with nutritional and environmental impact information about their food choices post-consumption. Many of these tools lack behavioral change modules, have low user engagement, and ignore inherent environmental nutrition trade-offs to stimulate dietary change. This study presents the design and development of a decision support system to enhance consumer health while meeting sustainability goals from a pre-consumption perspective. The proposed decision support system, Dashboard for Improving Sustainable Healthy (DISH) food choices, employs behavioral features, traffic light labels, and nudges to inform end-users about the nutritional health performance and environmental impact of meals. DISH uses a simple metric that allows end-users to explore the potential minutes of healthy and productive life gained or lost from consuming 100 kcal of a meal. The metric combines the positive or negative nutritional health effects (μ-DALYs) of consuming a meal and environmental damage (endpoint impact expressed in DALYs) on human health. In the DISH application, end-users are rewarded or deducted EnCoins, which represent the number of silver or gold coins lost or gained based on the cost ($) of environmental damage (midpoint impacts) of a meal compared to reference sustainable healthy and unsustainable and unhealthy meal. DISH's gamification module enables end-users to track the potential minutes of healthy and productive life gained/lost and gold or silver rewards or deductions from consuming 100 kcal of a selected meal through cumulative minutes gained or lost and EnCoins. In promoting a sustainable diet culture, the gamification module enables users to create groups and communities where friends and families can track their sustainability performance through meal decisions. The DISH application is currently available online and can be accessed by an end-user through any device. Further pilot studies will focus on testing the technology in partner campus cafeterias.

A systematic review of dietary data collection methodologies for diet diversity indicators

The purpose of the current study was to critically assess the gaps in the existing methodologies of dietary data collection for diet diversity indicators. The study proposed the importance of smartphone application to overcome the drawbacks. The review paper identified and assessed the conventional methodologies used in diet diversity indicators including Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W), Minimum Dietary Diversity of Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices (IYCF-MDD), and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS). The 80 research studies from 38 countries were critically assessed on the basis of their research aim, study design, target audience, dietary data collection methodology, sample size, dietary data type, dietary data collection frequency, and location point of dietary data collection. Results indicated that most studies employed interviewer-administered 24-h recall assessing the dietary diversity. The review paper concluded that smartphone application had potential to overcome the identified limitations of conventional methodologies including recall bias, social-desirability bias, interviewer training, and cost-time constraints.

Designing sustainable circular bioeconomy solutions for the pulse industry: The case of crude pea starch as a substrate for single cell protein production

Valorization of crude pea starch has become a key focus in the pea industry's sustainability pursuit. This study aimed to explore the circularity potential of crude pea starch as a nutrient-dense substrate for the solid-state cultivation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Single Cell Protein (SCP). Following the ISO 2006:14040/44 standard, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to ascertain the environmental performance and operational dynamics of baseline and scenario pea starch-based yeast SCP process designs and identify optimal design considerations. Results demonstrated a higher relative contribution to the toxicity categories, with a relatively less contribution to global warming and land use. The distribution and media enrichment processes were identified as the hotspots, contributing about 32-55 % and 40-56 % to global warming and land use, respectively. Generally, train and air freight were more sustainable than lorry freight, respective of mileage and mass. Regarding system alteration, eliminating the media enrichment process could offset about 26 % of land footprint, with a similar trend for most impact categories. Process benchmarking showed up to a 3-fold reduction in global warming impacts relative to soybean meal, and about 71 % offset relative to fishmeal. Consequential LCA showed a general sustainability preference for substituting the aquacultural feeds with pea starch-based SCP, with a stronger emphasis on fishmeal substitution. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of the proposed SCP design as a sustainable upcycling solution with substitutionary potentials for conventional food and feeds, recommending further exploration in value and wealth creation.

Sustainable healthy diet modeling for a plant-based dietary transitioning in the United States

The potential environmental and nutritional benefits of plant-based dietary shifts require thorough investigation to outline suitable routes to achieve these benefits. Whereas dietary consumption is usually in composite forms, sustainable healthy diet assessments have not adequately addressed composite diets. In this study, we build on available data in the Food4HealthyLife calculator to develop 3 dietary concepts (M) containing 24 model composite diet scenarios (S) assessed for their environmental and nutritional performances. The Health Nutritional Index (HENI) and Food Compass scoring systems were used for nutritional quality profiling and estimates of environmental impact were derived from previously reported midpoint impact values for foods listed in the What We Eat in America database. The diets were ranked using the Kruskal‒Wallis nonparametric test, and a dual-scale data chart was employed for a trade-off analysis to identify the optimal composite diet scenario. The results showcased a distinct variation in ranks for each scenario on the environment and nutrition scales, describing an inherent nonlinear relationship between environmental and nutritional performances. However, trade-off analysis revealed a diet with 10% legumes, 0.11% red meat, 0.28% processed meat and 2.81% white meat could reduce global warming by 54.72% while yielding a diet quality of 74.13 on the Food Compass Scoring system. These observations provide an interesting forecast of the benefits of transitioning to an optimal plant- and animal-based dieting pattern, which advances global nutritional needs and environmental stewardship among consumers.

Design and Development of 'Diet DQ Tracker': A Smartphone Application for Augmenting Dietary Assessment

The purpose of the current study was to describe the design, development, and validation of the 'Diet DQ Tracker'. The 'Diet DQ Tracker' is the first self-administered smartphone app designed to collect dietary data for diet diversity indicators. The main objective of the app was to replace the traditional methods of dietary data collection, such as in-person or telephone 24 h recall via pen and paper questionnaire or tablets. The real-time meal recording, extensive food database, and automatic score calculations and visualizations for MDD-W, IYCF-MDD, and HDDS have the potential to overcome the drawbacks of 24 h recalls. Recall depends on respondent memory, food expertise, and time consumption and demands skilled interviewers. Further, SAIN, LIM recommendations in the app prompt users to diversify diets with healthy foods. The pilot study determined the acceptability, feasibility, and relative validity of the 'Diet DQ Tracker' with a 24 h dietary recall. The results demonstrated minimal differences in dietary scores by both methodologies. The app, being convenient, easy to use, less time-consuming, and enjoyable, was preferred by the entire study sample over 24 h recall. The app will be continually updated with foods from different cultures for validating in large-scale studies. The future studies will help to improve the subsequent versions of the app.

Transitioning to sustainable healthy diets: A model-based and conceptual system thinking approach to optimized sustainable diet concepts in the United States

Food production and consumption are essential in human existence, yet they are implicated in the high occurrences of preventable chronic diseases and environmental degradation. Although healthy food may not necessarily be sustainable and vice versa, there is an opportunity to make our food both healthy and sustainable. Attempts have been made to conceptualize how sustainable healthy food may be produced and consumed; however, available data suggest a rise in the prevalence of health-related and negative environmental consequences of our food supply. Thus, the transition from conceptual frameworks to implementing these concepts has not always been effective. This paper explores the relative environmental and health risks associated with highly consumed food groups and develops a methodological workflow for evaluating the sustainability of diet concepts in the context of different health, socio-economic and environmental indicators. In addition, we apply the multi-criteria decision-making techniques (an integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process- Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-TOPSIS) model) to examine the health and environmental impact of selected sustainable healthy diet concepts implemented in the United States. The principal findings indicate that adopting plant-based diet patterns would benefit the environment and the population's health. However, the up-scale, broad adoption and implementation of these concepts are hindered by critical bottlenecks. Hence we propose potential modification strategies through a conceptual system thinking approach to deliver optimized sustainable diet concepts to aid in the realization of the anticipated benefits of adoption/implementation.

Impact of thermo-sonication on quality indices of starch-based sauces

In this study, ultrasonication, a physical, relatively cheap, and environmentally benign technology, was investigated to characterize its effect on functional properties of rice starch and rice starch-based sauces. Temperature-assisted ultrasound treatment improved the granular swelling power, fat and water absorption capacities, and thermal properties of rice starch, signifying its suitability in the formulation of starch-based sauces. Rheological characterization of the formulated sauces revealed a shear-thinning flow behavior, well described by the Ostwald de Waele model, while viscoelastic properties showed the existence of a weak gel. Results indicated that ultrasonication significantly enhanced the pseudoplastic behavior of starch-based sauces. Additionally, textural analysis showed that textural attributes (stickiness, stringiness, and work of adhesion) were also improved with ultrasonication. Moreover, enhanced freeze/thaw stability was also achieved with ultrasound-treated starch-based sauces. Overall, the results from this study show that ultrasound-treated starches can be used in the formulation of sauces and potentially other food products, which meets the requirements for clean label and minimally processed foods.