Food choices impact human and planetary health. The negative environmental impacts of the food system, increasing food insecurity and the prevalence of unhealthy and unsustainable diets are driving policymakers, scientists, companies and consumers to demand sustainable solutions. A trans-national and inter-disciplinary consortium consists of ~20 natural/social scientists and engineers from 7 universities and 2 industrial partners across 6 countries (UK, Italy, Romania, France, Turkey, and Morocco) across the 3 continents (Europe, Africa & Asia) has co-designed the project IPSUS to address Net Zero opportunity by linking sustainable protein shift and food waste valorisation. IPSUS will develop new insights into upcycling opportunities for under-utilised protein-rich plant side-streams of pumpkin, hazelnut, grape, potato, brewers' spent grain, and seaweeds across the UK, Italy, Romania, France, Turkey, and Morocco in order to future-proof the alternative protein supply chain (by replacing unsustainable predominance of soy protein based products).The goal is to understand the food system drivers, barriers and trade-offs of sustainable protein shift in the lower-middle income as well as high income countries. The envisioned food system unlock for the upcycled plant and seaweed proteins will also deliver eco-innovative technologies to create plant-based meat and cheese alternatives with superior qualities via the proposed product prototyping.
*At the time of the proposal. Please consider this data as an accurate estimate; it may vary during the project’s lifespan.
Total costs include in kind contribution by grant holders and can therefore be higher than the total requested funding.