Canadian professor wins Danone prize for sustainable eating for households
13 Jul 2021 | The University of Guelph
New research reveals challenges to sustainable eating at the household level and concrete strategies families can take for individual and planetary health. Dr. Jess Haines, associate professor of applied nutrition from the University of Guelph, Canada, explains the work, which earned her first place in this year’s Danone International Prize for Alimentation (DIPA). She also details what industry can do to decrease food waste at home.
This is Missy Green with Food Ingredients First, and I'm here with Jess Haines, an associate professor of applied nutrition from the University of Guelph in Canada.
She recently received the Dannon International Prize for Alimentation Award for her research around promoting sustainable, healthy eating habits among families.
So, Doctor Haynes, what makes your research so innovative?
Oh, great question.
Thanks, Missy.
So one of the things, when we got interested in thinking about sustainable eating, one of the big issues that got us sort of excited was the fact that we are throwing away a lot of the foods that we, purchase.
In fact, 50% of the food waste that happens in Canada happens at the household level.
So we endeavored to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers to try and do one of the most comprehensive studies of food waste in the house.
So what we did was we measured all the food coming into the house through grocery receipts and other food receipts over 4 weeks.
We measured what they ate during that month, and then we also measured all the waste that they threw out over those 4 weeks to really understand, you know, how was food managed in the household.
And so, that taught us a bit about, you know, sort of how much people were wasting, what foods they were wasting, as as some of the predictors of that food waste.
And so, I think some pieces that make it innovative is is comprehensive, and we had this great interdisciplinary team that included geographers, food economists, as as nutrition researchers, all focused on this issue of waste.
Wow, and so how many households participated in that study?
Yeah, so we had about 100 households here in the Guelph area, which may not sound like too many, but when you're doing that level of detailed data, it was plenty.
Yeah, yeah.
And what was the inspiration behind the research?
Great question.
So I have, always been interested in thinking about nutrition to promote, individuals' health, right?
And how can we, support healthy eating so that people can achieve their highest level of individual health.
And it was about 5 years ago that we started to recognize that that's not enough.
We also have to be thinking about planetary health.
So, at that time, we shifted to really think about not only promoting individual health, but what can we do to help families also have sustainable healthy eating practices that will also, benefit the health of the planet.
So, what can food manufacturers themselves do to encourage more sustainable eating habits among consumers?
Yeah, so we do a lot of work to help families in their own house manage food waste, but there are just like you mentioned, some structural things that food manufacturers can do, so that people can purchase more sort of the amounts of foods they want in the ways that they want.
So, one of the Big things, I think that can be really helpful is that, thinking about how we package or offer up food.
I don't know how it is for you in the Netherlands, Missy, but here in Canada, when I want to buy a leek, I can't buy a leek, they come in a group of 3.
And so, it makes it challenging.
I don't have a single recipe in my repertoire that uses 3 leaks, so I'll use my 1, and then I have to, you know, sort of do a lot of work to make sure those other 2 leaks don't go to waste.
And so, making sure that it's easier for people to buy the amounts of foods that they need at an affordable amount, makes that, that will help people, you know, buy the amount of food they want.
The other thing manufacturers can do, can be thinking about the plastics and the packaging, right?
That's not in our control as consumers, so it can be challenging when you buy a product that you really like the food, but it comes in all this packaging that's not very sustainable.
So those are two things that I think can make it a lot easier for consumers, if that's what it looks like at the grocery store.
Absolutely.
So what's your next area of focus?
So with this prize, we are excited to think about, so we have done a lot of work, to design resources for families to reduce food waste, and also to eat more sustainably.
So, for example, promoting plant-based proteins and that type of thing.
But they've all been sort of disparate, you know, done in different, , different projects.
And so what we're excited to do with this funding is try to bring this together to create sort of a consolidated resource that provides families with those top tips of how to eat healthy and sustainably.
So we want to bring those together and then we want to test it.
Does it actually work?
Does it help those families have more healthy and sustainable diets?
How exciting.
So, when is that expected to all happen?
When will we know the results?
Yeah, great question.
We will work towards, over this next year we'll be bringing the, the, , bringing all of our resources together in this integrated tool, and then research takes some time, so I would guess in a year or two after that you'll find out we will have been able to test it with families.
Great.
So what are some of the top alternative proteins that you that you're suggesting?
Sure, so we promote, , we promote a lot of beans, lentils, which are a lot of, a lot of which are produced here in Canada.
So our recipe book that we've created for families to help promote, plant-based proteins, walk through for families what are the different types of plant.
Proteins they can add to their diet.
So we talk about beans, we talk about lentils, peas, we also talk about, tofu, soy-based, proteins, and then we have a series of recipes that actually help them to integrate it.
And our recipes are two ways.
Some are just plant-based, right?
So if you want to have meatless Mondays or those types of days, those recipes are there.
And then for folks for whom that might be a big, a bit of a bit big stretch, we have recipes that have animal-based proteins that add plant that sort of replace some of the animal-based proteins as plant-based.
So, for example, a spaghetti sauce that has some meat and some lentils.
So, still may, may have some of the taste they're used to, but also has sort of a, improved environmental footprint.
And what is the, what is the channel now that this information is being sent out through?
And what's the strategy for reaching the families?
Yes, so we've been fortunate, we have an ongoing cohort of families called the Guelph Family Health Study, and that has about 400 families here in in the Guelph area, and we're able to certainly share our resources with them, and they're actually in.
Instrumental in helping us develop these tools.
They tell us what's gonna work, not gonna work, they test our recipes.
And then currently, all of our materials are available free on our website.
So if anyone listening wants to get their hands on some of these cookbooks, they're free, and our website is Guelphfamily Healthstudy.com.
And then the idea, back to your question about what are we doing next, is really thinking about when we think about creating this integrated tool, also thinking about how do we amplify access so that more people can access it, , you know, sort of across the world, cause these are gonna be fairly Universal messages around healthy sustainable eating, so that's gonna be a piece of it too.
How do we mobilize these families, or sorry, mobilize this information to more people.
So we will be thinking about what are the tools that are the best, and what venues are the best to do that.
Definitely.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thanks, Missy.
