A brand new research from the College of Aberdeen Rowett Institute has discovered that prepared meals will not be solely not as nutritious as residence cooked meals, but additionally have a better carbon footprint.
Scientists in contrast dietary high quality, greenhouse gasoline emissions and value of 54 chilled or frozen prepared meals, and equal home-cooked meals, enabling them to match animal versus plant-based meals, and assess the consequences of varied cooking strategies on greenhouse gasoline emissions.
The typical degree of free sugars (these which are added to meals) in prepared meals was considerably greater than in equal home-cooked meals.
Prepared meals additionally had considerably greater greenhouse gasoline emissions than equal home-cooked meals.
Magaly Aceves Martins, a analysis fellow on the Rowett Institute, stated, “Animal-based prepared meals have a a lot greater carbon footprint than equal home-cooked meals.”
“Emissions are almost 40% greater for animal-based prepared meals than equal home-cooked meals. Plant-based prepared meals and equal home-cooked meals had comparable greenhouse gasoline emissions.”
“Cooking prepared meals or equal home-cooked meals add additional emissions—we discovered oven cooking added as much as 20% to greenhouse gasoline emissions, whereas range and microwave cooking added solely as much as 4% or lower than 1% to greenhouse gasoline emissions, respectively.”
Professor Baukje de Roos added, “Prepared meals are extremely popular, attributable to lack of time for cooking, various mealtimes, and typically a scarcity of cooking expertise.”
“The prepared meal market has a UK market worth of over £3.9 billion. It’s estimated that 90% of the UK inhabitants eat prepared meals, with two out of 5 consuming them as soon as every week. Nonetheless, recipes for prepared meals fluctuate significantly, thus there may be important scope for the meals trade to enhance their dietary high quality and cut back their carbon footprint.”
The research was printed in Public Well being Vitamin.
Extra info:
Magaly Aceves-Martins et al, Prepared meals, particularly these which are animal-based and cooked in an oven, have decrease dietary high quality and better greenhouse gasoline emissions and are costlier than equal home-cooked meals, Public Well being Vitamin (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S1368980023000034
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College of Aberdeen
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Fast and simple prepared meals not the most effective for us—or the planet (2023, February 14)
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