Perspective: The place of pork meat in sustainable healthy diets.

The food systems sustainability framework has four domains: nutrition, economics, environment, and society. To qualify as sustainable, individual foods and total diets need to be nutrient-rich, affordable, environmentally friendly, and socially acceptable. Pork is the most consumed meat globally, providing high-quality protein and several priority micronutrients. With research attention focused on plant-based diets, it is time to assess the place of pork meat protein in the global sustainability framework. First, not all proteins are equal. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) category of protein foods includes meat, poultry and fish, eggs, beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds. These protein sources have different protein digestibility profiles, different per calorie prices, and different environmental footprints, measured in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). Second, most analyses of animal-source proteins combine beef, pork and lamb into a single category of red meat. Beef, pork and lamb have different nutrient profiles, different protein costs, and different impacts on the environment. Future analyses of nutrient density and monetary and carbon cost of alternative diets would do well to separate pork from beef, lamb, and chicken. There are also different profiles of global food demand. Prior analyses of global FAOSTAT food balance sheets joined with World Bank country incomes have consistently shown that rising incomes across lower-and middle-income countries (LMIC) create a growing demand for meat to replace the traditional plant proteins. Most of the observed increase has been for pork and chicken rather than beef. This ongoing LMIC protein transition toward more animal proteins may be irreversible as long as incomes grow. The present analyses explore the place of pork in sustainable healthy diets worldwide, given the need for high quality protein and the predictable patterns of global food demand.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest ☒ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Adam Drewnowski reports financial support was provided by National Pork Board. Adam Drewnowski reports a relationship with National Pork Board that includes: consulting or advisory. AD is the original developer of the Naturally Nutrient Rich (NNR) and the Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) nutrient profiling models. AD is a member of scientific advisory panels for National Pork Board, Nestlé, FrieslandCampina, BEL, and Carbohydrate Quality Panel supported by Potatoes USA and has worked with Ajinomoto, FoodMinds, KraftHeinz, Nutrition Impact LLC, Nutrition Institute, PepsiCo, and Samsung on quantitative ways to assess nutrient density of foods. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. AD is the original developer of the Naturally Nutrient Rich (NNR) and the Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) nutrient profiling models and a member of scientific advisory panels for National Pork Board, Nestlé, FrieslandCampina, BEL, and Carbohydrate Quality Panel supported by Potatoes USA and has worked with Ajinomoto, FoodMinds, KraftHeinz, Nutrition Impact LLC, Nutrition Institute, PepsiCo, and Samsung on quantitative ways to assess nutrient density of foods.