176
Tofu is the winner. Scientist creates new holistic scoring system to measure the impact of food (phys.org)
submitted 18 hours ago* by to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
69 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

In a paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Dr. Chris Macdonald explored the best sources of protein currently available.

To answer the question, Macdonald had to build a new holistic scoring system that combines measures of environmental impact, health, affordability and availability into a single framework.

Applying the scoring system to 20 commonly consumed protein-rich foods, the analysis found a striking pattern: every product in the highest-scoring quintile was plant-based, while every product in the lowest-scoring quintile was animal-based. Tofu ranked first overall, while cheddar cheese ranked last.

The paper argues that many existing food rating systems focus on only one aspect of a product. While useful, these single-dimension labels can obscure important trade-offs and make it difficult to compare foods comprehensively.

TOFU DOMINATION

Link to open access article https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 8 hours ago (1 child)

It isn't one or the other, it's both: soya oil and meal (what's left after pressing the oil out) are so-called "co-products" - you get about 20% oil, and 80% meal. The meal goes almost exclusively into animal feed, the oil then goes into various other products, including animal feed and food industry, where it is used in mostly non-vegan products (because vegan products only constitute a small proportion of industrially produced food products).

Your 80% figure pressed for oil includes soya meal used for animal feed.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •