A study from international think-tank The Barilla Centre for Food Nutrition in Italy claims that a healthy diet is also good for the environment.

Its report Double Pyramid: Healthy Food for People, Sustainable Food for the Planet found that foods with higher recommended consumption levels are also those with lower environmental impact.

Contrarily, those foods with lower recommended consumption levels are also those with higher environmental impact.

Barilla’s model combines the well-known food pyramid with an environmental pyramid based on an estimation of the environmental impact of each foodstuff in terms of its generation of greenhouse cases, consumption of water and use of land.

The study has been welcome by the Fresh Produce Consortium.

“It’s great to see that foods with higher recommended consumption levels like fresh produce are also those with a lower environmental impact,” said Nigel Jenney. “This should give consumers the confidence they seek to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet and put in context their overall environmental footprint.”

Analysis of the environmental impact of different foods included cultivation and raw materials, processing, manufacturing, packaging, transport, distribution, use, re-use, recycling and final disposal.

Comparing the carbon, water and ecological footprints of different foodstuffs, fruit and vegetables were far lower than meat and dairy products. For example, beef scored 105 for its ecological footprint compared to 3 for fruit and 14 for greenhouse vegetables.

“Food miles are often cited as a major contributor to the environmental impact of imported fresh produce, however, this report confirms the low footprint of fresh produce, regardless of its origin, and puts this in perspective compared to the impact of other foods,” added Nigel Jenney. “The fresh produce industry is putting in place measures to achieve food production in a low-carbon world, calculating greenhouse gas emissions, reducing excess packaging and increasing re-use and recycling, as well as reducing food waste and recovering energy.”

“Government departments can make a far greater impact to combat poor diets and rising obesity levels simply by having a cohesive policy for public sector food procurement which encourages greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, in line with Defra’s own definition of ‘locally in season’ which includes imported produce,” added Jenney.

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