Linear programming solutions for lowering environmental impacts of the Belgian diet while ensuring nutritional adequacy

Abstract

This master thesis project proposes a linear optimization model that aims to minimize the diet’s environmental impact produced by food intake. It considers the climate change and land use produced by twelve selected food groups, which represent the main protein sources in the Belgian diets. Thus, the model finds the optimal daily intake among different food groups in terms of climate change and land use, while satisfying nutritional requirements and minimizing changes to the current Belgian food habits, which is integrated considering five Belgian meat consumption typologies for each gender.