corsus gives a presentation on the environmental impact of the new DGE dietary recommendations

At the invitation of the State Leadership Academy for Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Bavaria, corsus presented the results of the first, preliminary assessment of the environmental impact of the new dietary recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) on 9 July 2025. The aim of the seminar ‘Food-related dietary recommendations – current status of content and assessment’ at Scheyern Monastery was to present the content of the recently developed new dietary recommendations and their assessment in terms of health and sustainability.

Dr Ulrike Eberle emphasised: “From an environmental perspective, the new DGE recommendations are a step in the right direction. If they were followed consistently, they would make a significant contribution to reducing the climate footprint associated with nutrition, as well as the land and biodiversity footprint. However, the effects with regard to the scarcity-weighted water footprint need to be considered in more detail. With regard to the water footprint, the origin of fruit, nuts and vegetables consumed in Germany must be considered in particular. This is because a large proportion of them are produced in regions that suffer from water problems.

However, a look at the current average diet also shows that it is far from being in line with the DGE’s nutritional recommendations. In addition to further adapting the dietary recommendations, it is therefore particularly important to develop strategies for increasing the consumption of more environmentally friendly and health-promoting foods.

Initial results from the ModErn project (Modelling the ecological effects of the revised DGE dietary recommendations), which corsus has been working on since the beginning of 2024 on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency, were presented at the seminar. Further work will further differentiate and substantiate the initial estimates that are now available. In addition, scenarios will be developed to show the potential environmental benefits and risks of the updated DGE recommendations and to assess the extent to which the planetary boundaries will be adhered to.

However, even these initial assessments show how important it is that relevant environmental impacts are taken into account when deriving dietary recommendations.

The factsheet ‘Sustainable nutrition in practice: Ensuring planetary health with the new DGE recommendations’ from the German Environment Agency, which presents the results of the first, preliminary assessment in more detail, can be found here (only in German).