This work is the result of a collaboration between E. Röös, M. Jacobsen, L. Karlsson, W. Wanecek, J. Spångberg, R. Mazac and L. Rydhmer. Together, they developed Sustainability Assessment of Foods And Diets tool (SAFAD), an open-source platform that brings together a wide range of environmental and social impact indicators. Instead of focusing only on individual food products, it allows users to analyse whole diets, whether they consist of raw products like bananas and chicken, or composite foods such as pizza, bread, and ready-to-drink coffee.

Why is this important?
It has never been more urgent to rethink what we put on our plates. Our food choices not only impact our health, they also have repercussions for the entire planet, contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss, and increased environmental pressures. While we have long had the means to measure the impact of individual products (for example, the carbon footprint of beef compared to that of lentils), assessing entire diets is a much greater challenge.

Key points

Unlike traditional carbon footprint calculation tools, SAFAD goes beyond carbon emissions. It incorporates ten key indicators, including:

• Climate impacts (carbon footprint)
• Biodiversity loss
• Animal welfare
• Antibiotic use…
• and several others reflecting both environmental and social dimensions.

But above all, this tool is configurable. Users can adjust recipes, take food waste into account, change countries of origin, or even replace emission factors. This flexibility makes SAFAD not only a research tool but also a practical platform enabling policymakers, NGOs, and even the food industry to explore mitigation strategies.