New paper published by INL e.V. and corsus: Planet Health Conformity Index (PHC)

In order to make nutrition more sustainable, assessment approaches are needed that link health and the environment and evaluate them together. The Planet Health Conformity Index (PHC), which was developed as part of the CLIF – Climate Impacts of Food project, addresses precisely this issue. In contrast to mono-dimensional indicators such as the Nutri-Score (focus: health) or the Eco-Score (focus: environment), a key figure has been developed that can provide a clear orientation for health and environmental aspects. In addition, the newly developed PHC also takes planetary impact limits into account in the assessment. The PHC can thus provide more orientation in the labelling jungle. The paper has just been published.

The development of the PHC by the INL e.V. team led by Toni Meier and Ulrike Eberle from corsus is based on the analysis of 125 foodstuffs that represent the average shopping basket in Germany. The results show that the evaluation results vary greatly depending on which functional unit is used as a basis. The functional units compared were mass or energy-related functional units and a functional unit that takes into account the nutrient profile of the food and the planetary boundaries. The PHC thus breaks down the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) to nutrient level.

The evaluation on the basis of the PHC developed in this way shows: When the nutritional and physiological aspects and the planetary boundaries are included, there are clear exceedances of the planetary boundaries for some foods that would be categorised within the planetary boundaries on the basis of a mass or energy-related functional unit. This is the case for CO₂ emissions in 38% of products, for water consumption in 27% and for the use of mineral phosphorus fertilisers in 71% of foods.

The newly developed PHC also enables a differentiated product evaluation for different target groups (children, adolescents, seniors, etc.), as the nutritional requirements can be adjusted according to the target group.

The PHC therefore represents a milestone for multi-nutritional life cycle assessments by combining environmental and health aspects. It can be used not only for individual foods, but also for recipes, menus, product ranges and diets. It can also be used for food labelling to support sustainable nutrition.