Abstract: To date, many studies have assessed the environmental impacts of food products or diets, using different methodologies or approaches. However, few of them have considered their nutritional quality. This study aims to evaluate, on the one hand, the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions of four home cooked meals composed of multiple ingredients, through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and, on the other hand, to link the GHG emissions to the nutritional qualities of those meals. The selected meals suit different types of diets: vegetarian, carnivorous, pescetarian and omnivorous. Those meals are homemade according to traditional recipes, and different ways of cooking the ingredients (pan fried, boiled, oven baked) are taken into account. The LCA of the meals is performed from cradle to consumer, including all the relevant stages of their life cycle: food production,manufacturing, distribution, cooking and consumption. The nutritional quality of the meals is assessed using the nutrient rich food index 9.3 (NRF9.3), which takes in account 9 nutrients to encourage (protein, fiber, Vitamins A, C and E, Ca, Fe, Mg, K) and 3 nutrients to limit (saturated fat, added sugar, Na). To compare the GHG emissions of the meals, three functional units are considered: one meal adjusted by grams, kcal, and NRF9.3. The study aims to discuss the importance of introducing the nutritional quality in LCA when comparing the environmental impact of meals, in order to go beyond the traditional results based on mass or energy intake only, as mainly found in the literature.

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