TY - JOUR
T1 - Ovalbumin production using Trichoderma reesei culture and low-carbon energy could mitigate the environmental impacts of chicken-egg-derived ovalbumin
AU - Järviö, Natasha
AU - Parviainen, Tuure
AU - Maljanen, Netta Leena
AU - Kobayashi, Yumi
AU - Kujanpää, Lauri
AU - Ercili-Cura, Dilek
AU - Landowski, Christopher P.
AU - Ryynänen, Toni
AU - Nordlund, Emilia
AU - Tuomisto, Hanna L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was part of the ‘Cultured meat in the post-animal bioeconomy’ project (no. 201802185) funded by the KONE foundation (N.J. and T.R.) and the ‘Transforming agriculture with agroecological symbiosis combined with cellular agriculture— environmental impacts and perceptions of farmers and consumers’ project funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (N.-L.M.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We thank A. M. Whipp (MPH Epidemiology) for her assistance with language editing and R. Heijungs for his instructions on how to perform a dependent modified null hypothesis significance test.
PY - 2021/12/16
Y1 - 2021/12/16
N2 - Ovalbumin (OVA) produced using the fungus Trichoderma reesei (Tr-OVA) could become a sustainable replacement for chicken egg white protein powder—a widely used ingredient in the food industry. Although the approach can generate OVA at pilot scale, the environmental impacts of industrial-scale production have not been explored. Here, we conducted an anticipatory life cycle assessment using data from a pilot study to compare the impacts of Tr-OVA production with an equivalent functional unit of dried chicken egg white protein produced in Finland, Germany and Poland. Tr-OVA production reduced most agriculture-associated impacts, such as global warming and land use. Increased impacts were mostly related to industrial inputs, such as electricity production, but were also associated with glucose consumption. Switching to low-carbon energy sources could further reduce environmental impact, demonstrating the potential benefits of cellular agriculture over livestock agriculture for OVA production.
AB - Ovalbumin (OVA) produced using the fungus Trichoderma reesei (Tr-OVA) could become a sustainable replacement for chicken egg white protein powder—a widely used ingredient in the food industry. Although the approach can generate OVA at pilot scale, the environmental impacts of industrial-scale production have not been explored. Here, we conducted an anticipatory life cycle assessment using data from a pilot study to compare the impacts of Tr-OVA production with an equivalent functional unit of dried chicken egg white protein produced in Finland, Germany and Poland. Tr-OVA production reduced most agriculture-associated impacts, such as global warming and land use. Increased impacts were mostly related to industrial inputs, such as electricity production, but were also associated with glucose consumption. Switching to low-carbon energy sources could further reduce environmental impact, demonstrating the potential benefits of cellular agriculture over livestock agriculture for OVA production.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121426423&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43016-021-00418-2
DO - 10.1038/s43016-021-00418-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121426423
VL - 2
SP - 1005
EP - 1013
JO - Nature Food
JF - Nature Food
SN - 2662-1355
IS - 12
ER -
