Publications

Iryna Herzon, Rachel Mazac, Maijaliisa Erkkola, T Garnett, H Hansson, M Jonell, M Kaljonen, T Kortetmäki, Marjukka Lamminen, A Lonkila, Mari Helena Niva, Anne-Maria Pajari, T Tribaldos, Marjaana Toivonen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Kari Koppelmäki, E Röös. 2024. Both downsizing and improvements to livestock systems are needed to stay within planetary boundaries. Nature food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01030-w

Rachel Mazac, Matti Hyyrynen, Niina E. Kaartinen, Satu Männistö, Xavier Irz, Kari Hyytiäinen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Chiara Lombardini. 2024. Correction: Exploring tradeoffs among diet quality and environmental impacts in self-selected diets: a population-based study. European Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03430-x

In the original version of this article, in the abstract, second sentence of the result sections which previously read. One cluster, including twenty percent of the individuals in the sample was identified as a “best compromise” diet with the highest diet quality and the second lowest environmental impacts of all clusters, except for freshwater eutrophication. Should have read One cluster, including eighteen percent of the ...

Rachel Mazac, Matti Hyyrynen, Niina E. Kaartinen, Satu Männistö, Xavier Irz, Kari Hyytiäinen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Chiara Lombardini. 2024. Exploring tradeoffs among diet quality and environmental impacts in self-selected diets: a population-based study. European Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03366-2

Proposed sustainable diets often deviate dramatically from currently consumed diets, excluding or drastically reducing entire food groups. Moreover, their environmental sustainability tends to be measured only in terms of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of this study was to overcome these limitations and identify a cluster of already adopted, relatively healthy diets with substantially lower environmental impacts than the ...

Rachel Mazac, Morena Bruno, Michele Marini, Dario Caro. 2024. Assessing the sustainability of cultured meat in optimized Danish diets. Sustainable Production and Consumption. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.04.002

Reducing animal-sourced foods in diets saves a significant share of environmental impacts. Sustainable dietary patterns have proposed large reductions in red meats in particular. Foods with the potential to reduce the environmental impacts of diets are under increasing investigation, and cultured meat, produced by culturing animal cells, could play a key role, especially for diet transitions away from high red meat consumption...

Anne Charlotte Bunge, Rachel Mazac, Michael Clark, Amanda Wood, Line Gordon. 2024. Author Correction: Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47901-5

Bunge, A.C., Mazac, R., Clark, M. et al. Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden. Nat Commun 15, 951 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45328-6

Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs. Our results demonstrate that PBA-rich diets substantia...

Rachel Mazac. 2023. Appetite for Change : Incorporating novel and future foods in sustainable diets and food-based dietary guidelines. HELDA.

The exorbitant environmental and detrimental health impacts of current food systems have prompted the need for changes which expeditiously and concurrently meet multiple sustainability aims. Dietary consumption changes are posited as one facet of food systems transformation which could be an efficacious means to meet multiple sustainability ends simultaneously. Such sustainable shifts, resulting in transitions away from relati...

Megan Resler, Rachel Mazac, Seona Candy, Teemu Kemppainen. 2023. Transitioning beyond urban green space accessibility indicators. Environmental and sustainability indicators. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2023.100232

Current urban green space planning processes are typically guided by greenspace-to-residence proximity indicators. Alone, these indicators are unable to assess, and respond, to the growing socio-spatial polarisation of environmental risks, impacts, and benefits among distinct societal groups within a city. In this research, we present a municipal green space planning tool for measuring the spatial distribution of urban green s...

Rachel Mazac, Natasha Järviö, Hanna L. Tuomisto. 2023. Environmental and nutritional Life Cycle Assessment of novel foods in meals as transformative food for the future. Science of the Total Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162796

Sustainable diets are key for mitigating further anthropogenic climate change and meeting future health and sustainability goals globally. Given that current diets need to change significantly, novel/future foods (e.g., insect meal, cultured meat, microalgae, mycoprotein) present options for protein alternatives in future diets with lower total environmental impacts than animal source foods. Comparisons at the more concrete me...

Iryna Herzon, Rachel Mazac, Maijaliisa Erkkola, Tara Garnett, Helena Hansson, Minna Kaljonen, Teea Kortetmäki, Annika Lonkila, Malin Jonell, Mari Helena Niva, Anne-Maria Pajari, Theresa Margarete Tribaldos, Marjaana Toivonen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Kari Koppelmäki, Elin Röös. 2023. A rebalanced discussion of the roles of livestock in society. Nature food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00866-y

The many roles of animals in modern agriculture and food systems have come under considerable scrutiny in the context of sustainability. A recent Correspondence1 presented The Dublin Declaration of scientists, outlining the societal roles of meat, as well as the key messages aimed to rebalance contemporary debates on the role of meat and livestock (first presented in a special issue on the same topic that accompanied the Decla...