Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of mycoprotein production through a bioeconomy approach: a case study of the Plenitude project

This work presents the insights gathered from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on Abunda mycoprotein conducted as part of the European project Plenitude funded by the Circular Bio-based Joint Undertaking (CBE JU). A ‘cradle-to-gate’ attributional LCA study was carried out on the production, distribution and storage phases of Abunda mycoprotein developed within the Plenitude project (the baseline scenario) using a declared unit of 1 kg of edible Abunda mycoprotein and analysing the LCIA results based on four midpoint impact categories: climate change global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication (aquatic, marine and terrestrial) and land use. Assumptions and choices for the baseline scenario were tested through a sensitivity/scenario analysis. A second scenario (the ‘recipes’ scenario) was investigated with the aim of assessing the environmental impact associated with the production of food-grade meat substitute products using Abunda as the primary protein source. For this scenario, a functional unit of 100 g of food items is based on Abunda as a major source of protein. The LCIA results obtained were compared with the benchmarks. In addition, a comparative analysis of both the environmental performance (analysing the climate change GWP midpoint category), as well as nutritional properties was carried out considering a beef patty, a plant-based burger, and a burger using Abunda as major protein source developed by ENOUGH. The LCA study conducted as part of this work has highlighted how Abunda could be further explored as a promising food ingredient to be used in meat analogues potentially combined with other protein sources to overcome the limitation of its intrinsic low fraction of protein content or by investigating recipes formulation with higher content of Abunda mycoprotein while ensuring desired organoleptic properties to meet consumer expectations and ensure overall consumer acceptance for future commercialisation.