Healthier ready meals could reduce EU emissions by 48 million tonnes per year and save consumers €2,8 billion each year, according to analysis commissioned by consultancy Systemiq by non-profit environmental organizations Fern and Madre Brava.
Fast food and ready meals provide more than a sixth of the EU's calories but contain far more salt and meat than doctors recommend, the analysis found.
These organizations conclude that imposing minimum health and sustainability standards on companies that sell most ready-made meals would bring “huge” benefits to society.
Eduardo Montero Mansilla from the Spanish Federation of Consumers and Users, one of the 10 non-governmental organizations that wrote the report, said: “Making ready meals healthier and more sustainable is a policy that will not be regretted. “We can improve the health of people and the planet at affordable prices.” said.
The report explored the effects of major food companies complying with the diets of the World Health Organization, which aims to avoid malnutrition and non-communicable diseases, and the EAT-Lancet Commission, which seeks to reduce environmental as well as human harm.
In both cases, they found that, on average, ready meals should contain about half as much refined grains and two-thirds less meat and “significantly” more legumes.
While the report found this would save consumers €2,8 billion in cheaper food and reduce emissions by 48 million tonnes each year, it did not take into account additional economic benefits, such as hospitals spending less money treating patients and employers losing less money on employee sick leave .
Alba Gil of the European Public Health Association, one of the report's authors, said: “We are currently experiencing a diet-related health crisis. Our eating habits shape our health and therefore our future. “It makes sense for policymakers to regulate the environments in which we consume food to make them healthy and affordable by design.” he wrote.
Farmed animals are responsible for 12-20% of the pollution warming the planet, and in rich countries where the average person eats more meat than doctors recommend, it increases levels of some heart diseases and cancer.
While climate scientists are clear that switching from animal to plant proteins is a strong step to prevent the planet from warming, doctors aren't sure how little meat is best for human health. The EAT-Lancet Commission, which met this year to recommend a broader range of diets and address concerns about micronutrient deficiencies in the global health diet, currently recommends eating meat once a week and fish twice a week.
NGOs have called on the EU to require major food companies to comply with health and sustainability rules for ready meals sold in the EU. The report did not analyze how consumers would react to such a proposal.
Paul Behrens, an environmental change researcher at Leiden University who studies food systems and was not involved in the study, said: “This report pragmatically suggests that not every meal needs to be optimally healthy, but that the overall presentation by caterers and retailers should comply with nutritional guidelines .
“If policymakers follow this advice, it will create a much healthier food culture that will benefit the planet, our well-being and our wallets.”