EURO 2025 Leeds
Abstract Submission

2848. Optimizing local diets while considering seasonality of ingredients

Invited abstract in session TA-16: Food and Nutrition Security - Crops and menus, stream Sustainable Food & Agroforestry.

Tuesday, 8:30-10:00
Room: Esther Simpson 2.07

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Maike van Rooijen
Operations Research and Logistics, Wageningen University
2. Francisco Martos-Barrachina
Area of Statistics and Operational Research, Universidad de Málaga
3. Laura Delgado Antequera
University of Malaga

Abstract

Food miles account for nearly 20% of global food emissions. Therefore, prioritizing the use of local foods is an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of our food system. Besides decreasing environmental impact there is a need for nutritious and affordable diets. Formulating these diets is challenging due to the conflicting nature of the objectives. Mathematical programming has proven to be an effective method to find these diets. However, current studies usually propose one meal plan, overlooking seasonal ingredient availability. This study develops a mixed-integer meal planning model which considers seasonality of ingredients, costs, and nutritional value. Andalucia is taken as a case study. Our findings demonstrate that increasing local food is feasible without compromising nutritional adequacy. This meal planning framework offers an approach to reduce food miles while improving the palatability of dietary recommendations.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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