Browsing by Subject "Protein"

Previous research has shown that beef have higher environmental impacts of land use (LU) and global warming potential (GWP) than the legumes, though the production type of beef makes a difference in its environmental impacts. Beef as a protein source produced within High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems has not yet been compared to other protein sources in terms of nutritional and environmental impact. HNV farmland is defined as farmland areas in Europe “where agriculture is a major land use and where that agriculture supports or is associated with, either a high species and habitat diversity or the presence of species of European conservation concern or both” (Andersen et al. 2003). Though beef has higher environmental impacts, it can provide an important nutrient source, especially if the bioavailability (BA) of protein is taken into account. It is known that legumes have lower BA for protein than beef, which means that the beef protein and some nutrients are made more available for the human body. It remains unknown to what degree this could affect the required mass of foods consumed to meet nutrition requirements, which could in turn effect the environmental impacts of food consumption. The aim is to assess if HNV beef and plant-based protein-rich alternatives differ in environmental impacts when BA of proteins is considered. The objectives are i) to compare HNV beef in relation to its nutritional content and environmental impact to three alternative protein sources (red kidney beans, chickpeas, and fava beans) and ii) to assess the difference in environmental impacts when BA of these protein sources is and is not considered. The results showed that taking into account protein BA affects the available nutritional value of the protein and the environmental impacts of HNV beef and the other protein sources. The impacts of GWP and LU are highest for HNV and conventional beef even when the impacts were corrected for BA. This means that the inclusion of beef produced on HNV farmland in a sustainable diet is more environmentally impactful than protein intake from legumes when considering the chosen environmental categories. Future studies should include environmental impacts such as water use, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and also different socio-cultural metrics in order to justly assess HNV farming system and HNV products.

Many European citizens have growing concerns over climate change. This seems to go together with the debate about the impact of consumers’ personal dietary choices on climate change. Novel food protein sources are entering the European food market to replace or compensate meat protein sources. One protein food alternative are insect-based proteins. However, there is limited research as to how choices of alternative insect-based protein products may influence consumers’ carbon footprints. This study explores the potential of insect protein to reduce the carbon footprint associated with European food consumption. Three scenarios were formed to identify and describe options for reducing current levels of carbon footprints associated with the consumption of conventionally produced chicken meat. In the scenarios, soybean meal-based feeds used in conventional chicken production are replaced with insect-based feeds, and chicken products are replaced with protein food products from insects. Further, two different insect feeding sources are considered and compared to each other. A number of existing global warming potential values from a variety of Life Cycle Assessment studies focusing on chicken and insect production were collected to create a database for use in the scenario analyses. The database was utilised to assess the global warming impact of producing alternative insect protein on the carbon footprint of European food consumption. The results from the three scenarios indicate that the carbon footprint of food consumption can be reduced by replacing conventionally produced chicken meat with insect-based protein food products. However, insect-based protein products would have a positive impact on the carbon footprint only if the insects that are produced for use in feed or food are farmed with low-value side streams. Currently, the shift to an increased use of side streams in insect-based food production faces regulatory challenges in Europe. In the light of European efforts to encourage sustainable food alternatives, and considering the environmental benefits insects could offer as alternative proteins over options of conventional protein sources, there is a need for continued research on the environmental sustainability of insect eating and insect feeding, as well as the safety and regulatory issues related to the use of insect protein in food consumption.

At the literary review, basic concepts of proteomics and mass spectrometry were covered. Different data-collection methods (DDA and DIA) were compared with each other including exploration of the possibilities of the DIA method. Characteristics of Fourier transformation mass spectrometry were discussed in detail beginning from the production of the protein spectra in FTMS instruments including features of the Orbitrap (hybrid) mass spectrometer. Features included modes of measurements, working principle, performance characteristics, operation modes and top-down experiments including large intact protein analysis (m/z range > 6000 Da). The working principles and performance in proteomic analyses of other mass spectrometer instruments were also briefly covered. Orbitrap MS instrumentation is compared with high-performance mass spectrometers including triple quadrupole, time of flight, ion trap, and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometers. Lastly, operation and coupling of the LC instrumentation to the Orbitrap mass spectrometer were also briefly discussed. The experimental part of the thesis covers development and feasibility testing of a quality control method for protein analysis studied with PierceTM Intact Protein Standard Mix by using microflow liquid chromatography-Orbitrap mass spectrometry combination. Development and testing of the method includes optimization of the method for dried sample, robustness testing with variable LC eluent concentrations, and the method performance with a heavily contaminated instrument compared with the performance of a clean MS instrument. Tested heavily contaminated instrument had more than 2000 injections of protein samples without cleaning. In the end, the developed protein analysis method was tested with nine different Q Exactive HF Orbitrap instruments to measure the instrument variation. In the studies, the average mass of analyzed proteins varied from 9111.47 to 68001.15 kDa The mass range used for identification was 500 – 2000 Da.