Can agrifood co-products do better? Life cycle platform for solid fermentation

Abstract Solutions towards decoupling food production from arable land are increasingly promoted to alleviate food system’s environmental impacts. It includes solid substrate fermentation (SSF), allowing to nutritionally enhance fibrous co-products. Yet, it remains unclear whether and to which extent SSF valorization pathways really improve environmental performances of agrifood co-products in comparison to current practices. Using a framework which combines process-based consequential life cycle analysis, uncertainty assessment and biomass resource potential estimation, we quantify and qualify implications of SSF nutritional enhancement through six selected case studies. When used to unlock food markets, SSF yields environmental benefits for all impact categories. When used to unlock feed markets (low-value streams), SSF pathways are preferable options compared to energy valorization for most impacts except climate change. We show that the environmental impacts of novel food and feed are principally dependent on avoided crops and land use change accounting methods, these requiring further and systematic harmonization.