This study aims to develop and apply the Rapid Scaling Tool (RST), a novel instrument designed to facilitate the responsible scaling of agricultural innovations. The RST integrates the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targeted agri-food sustainability indicators into one comprehensive evaluation framework. Developed iteratively through literature reviews, expert consultations, and case studies, the RST relies on stakeholder collaboration from the early stages of innovation development. It provides a three-step process to ensure that scaling efforts align with environmental, economic, and social sustainability targets. This framework guides practitioners through the complexities of scaling agricultural innovations, and uses Intermediate Value Chains (IVCs)as a case study to identify indicators for responsible scaling. The concept of IVCs represents a novel organizational structure within agri-food chains, offering a middle ground between short and long chain structures. This paper details the methodology behind the RST and discusses its implications for transforming agri-food systems, by applying it to a case study involving a Swedish IVC for wild berry picking. The IVC case study illustrates how the RST can aid in preemptively identifying potential negative impacts and developing mitigation strategies, while offering a practical solution for addressing the design paradox in early-stage innovation assessments. Building on its flexible, user-friendly design, this makes the RST an essential tool for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners aiming to achieve impactful and sustainable outcomes for scaling innovations in the agri-food sector.

Upcycled foods, products made from edible food residues that would otherwise have been discarded, offer an approach to tackling food waste, climate impact, and resource inefficiency. These foods provide both environmental and economic value by converting surplus into new, nutritious products. The project 'Reviving Food Resources', carried out in collaboration between RISE, the University of Borås, and Axfood, aimed to explore how upcycled foods can be more effectively integrated into the Swedish food supply chain. Through a stakeholder-driven approach and systematic needs assessment, the project identified barriers, opportunities, and actionable insights for implementation.

The project shows that there is technical potential and motivation to develop upcycled foods, but also a need for systematic support to address practical, commercial and structural barriers. In addition to technical feasibility, business and collaboration models need to be adapted to local conditions and the characteristics of the raw materials.

The project resulted in • A framework/working method for identifying barriers and challenges. • An initial analysis of Swedish food companies' views on upcycling • Recommendations for further work

A substantial quantity of berries is grown in Sweden, estimated at more than 550 000 tons every year. Intriguingly, only a fraction of this amount (some 2 5%) finds practical utilization. Historically, the low utilization rate can be attributed to a scarcity of harvesting personnel, challenges in accessing the harvesting sites, and logistical complexities. Even with the current berry picking value chain, which is mostly operated by seasonal Thai pickers, numerou s challenges persist. The workers’ work and life conditions are not satisfactory, and efficiency is low, making up a value chain that is far from sustainable. In an attempt for more efficient and sustainable chains, some innovative solutions are practiced in a European innovation project, FAIRCHAIN. These innovative solutions include (i) developing an app to track berries and spot more probable places to find berries in real time, and (ii) cleaning and processing the berries locally into products like jam o r use them as an ingredient in other products (e.g., dairy products) in different scales. We, however, regardless of the scale and prospectives of the innovations, put together a model to assess how sustainable these innovations are compared to the current value chains. Significance of such assessments in helping decision making and designing new value chains while considering different aspects of sustainability is clear. In pursuit of this objective, we have formulated a comprehensive framework tailored to evaluate the sustainability of the proposed innovations within the context of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). To establish the foundation of this framework, we selected 18 important sustainability indicators for potentially shaping the sustainability outcomes of various innovative solutions, covering the three foundational pillars of sustainability: environmental considerations, social responsibility, and economi c viability. These indicators are Capacity development , Fair contracts and fair pricing , Human safety and health , Collective bargaining , Food sovereignty , Labor rights and Equity , Quality of life , Food quality , Local procurement , Local employment , Stability of market , Product information , Profitability , Stability of production , Land use , Energy use , Biodiversity , and Atmospheric impacts . Leveraging the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), we systematically assigned relative weights to these indicators, foste ring a nuanced evaluation process. The preliminary results indicate that social indicators (such as Quality of life and Capacity development ) and economic ones (such as Stability of production and Local employment ) gain the highest It is worth noting that the entirety of data to feed this model was gained after multiple rigorous sessions of discussion and weighting by the informed project partners to reach ultimate consensus. This is ongoing research and here we rely on showcasing the framework to highlight its capabilities and strengths and discuss its limitations. Insights found in such inclusive holistic assessment hold significant value for decision makers who need to see t he big picture before intervention decisions such as small and large scale innovations in short and long term. 

This case study explores a holistic innovation approach to explore how an intermediate value chain in the Swedish berry industry can boost a region's resilience, value retention, and competitiveness. The project, facilitated by a local innovation team in B jurholms municipality, has identified opportunities, developed solutions, and established two new organizations that demonstrate new sustainable, techno social value offerings.

The transition towards more plant-based diets is identified as an important measure for limiting dietary climate impact. Plant-based meat analogues (PBMAs) have been proposed as a viable lower carbon alternative to meat, and its market is rapidly growing globally. However, knowledge about the climate impact of PBMAs in relation to other foods is currently limited due to the challenge of comparing life cycle assessments (LCAs) using different methods. The aim of this study was to review the climate impact of PBMAs based on LCAs published up to 2021. Original LCA data were recalculated to harmonize differences in method choices among studies and presented as the climate impact of final products at factory gate. The median climate impact of PBMAs was estimated at 1.7 kg CO2 eq./kg of product with a more than fourfold variation in impact (0.5–2.4 kg CO2 eq./kg product). Climate impact per protein content of the final product varied from 0.4 to 1.2 kg CO2 eq./100 g protein with a median impact of 0.8 kg CO2 eq./100 g protein. Cultivation of raw materials and manufacturing were identified to be responsible for a large proportion of GHG emissions up to factory gate. However, the assessment of climate impact in the production chain was challenged by the level of detail of data provided. A transparent reporting strategy regarding the specific stages in the supply chain, method choices and product information is recommended to facilitate identification of hot spots to target for improved climate performance of future PBMAs and to enable accurate comparisons between studies. It could further be concluded that current scientific knowledge on the climate impact of PBMAs is based on a limited number of LCAs that often rely on a combination of secondary data and collected data at production scale or from pilot-scale production facilities. Future LCAs of PBMAs would benefit from additional assessments of commercial production using region- and site-specific data. © 2023 The Authors

The aim of the study was to create a practical method for identifying potential locations for bilberry picking with help of remote sensing, local field data and phone application to support the development of the local berry value chain. Local field data w as collected 2021 and 2022 and consisted 503 and 525 plots from a study area of circa 25x45km in Västerbotten, Sweden. The potential for bilberry production was evaluated by measuring the shrub cover and amount of raw berries. Wall to wall remote sensing d ata included a Sentinel 2 image from same summer, airborne laser scanning data from 2020 and other map products. We created classification models for bilberry shrub and yield using both logistic regression (2 classes) and ordinal regression (3 classes) mod els using 2021 data, and validated and calibrated models with 2022 data. Predictor variables consisted of spectral metrics from satellite data; structural metrics from laser data; existing raster maps of tree species, stand attributes, site index, soil moi sture and land use classes. The 2 class models performed better than three class models, delivering the AUC 0.73, overall accuracy 0.83 and kappa value 0.51 for best bilberry shrub model and 0.75, 0.77 and 0.50 respectively for best bilberry yield model. T he best models included both laser based structural metrics describing e.g canopy closure and spectral metrics, but also e.g. volume of pine, soil moisture and site index were found significant predictor variables. Calibration of the models improved annual predictions and the validation of the 2021 raster maps with 2022 data produced similar AUC, OA, and kappa values for bilberry yield (0.73, 0.74 and 0.46), but lower for bilberry shrub (0.61, 0.68 and 0.24). A dedicated phone application was developed duri ng the project, which was used both for collecting the field data and for presenting the potential locations of berry yields. Local berry maps can help berry pickers easier to find the berries in forest landscape and therefore support local berry value cha in. This study is part of the FAIRCHAIN project, which has received funding from the European Union’s funding programme H2020 research and innovation programme under grand agreement 101000723.

Dry-fractioned pea protein concentrate can be moulded into meat-analogue products, and understanding the environmental impact and hot spots of this expanding industry segment could pave the road to broader adoption of these protein sources. Hence, this research measures the environmental performance of a green pea protein supply chain in southern Sweden that processes pea protein concentrate into pea protein sausages. A cradle-to-factory-gate life-cycle assessment was performed. 1 kg of pea protein concentrate at 46% and 1 kg of pea protein sausages were chosen as functional units, while ReCiPe 2016 v1.1 Midpoint E was utilized to calculate 18 impact categories. Economic allocation was applied to pea protein processing, and mass allocation to sausage production, using 2021/22 data from Swedish companies. For 1 kg of pea protein concentrate of 46%, cultivation contributes to 41–99% of the total impact considering all 18 impact categories, while processing 1–59%. The climate impact was 1.91 kg CO2eq/kg pea protein concentrate (1.54 from the cultivation step and 0.37 from the processing step). For 1 kg of pea protein sausages, cultivation and sausage production contributed together between 32% and 78% to the total impacts. The climate impact was 1.0 kg CO2eq/kg sausage. Comparing the climate impacts of sausage ingredients, rapeseed oil and spices contributed significantly. For the sausage production stage, electricity and natural gas contributed the most. The results for climate impact are in the same range as for similar plant-based products, although the range reported in literature is wide. Green pea cultivation, sausage production and ingredients contributed all significantly. The results highlight the need to address the choice of ingredients when formulating the final product. The choice of allocation method had a significant impact on the results. Mass allocation resulted in 6 times lower impacts for the pea protein concentrate compared to economic allocation. © 2023 The Authors

Agar-based extracts from Gelidium sesquipedale were obtained by applying a conventional hot water treatment and alternative ultrasound- and microwave-assisted methods, with and without the application of an alkaline pre-treatment. The alkaline pre-treatment produced refined extracts with higher purity; however, extraction yields increased from 2–5% to 7–19% by omitting this step. In particular, the ultrasound-assisted extraction allowed reducing 4-fold the extraction time, while keeping constant or even increasing the yield (up to 19% for the 1 h extraction) with respect to the conventional protocol. Interestingly, the presence of proteins and polyphenols conferred the semi-refined extracts a relatively high antioxidant capacity (19–24 μmol TE/g extract). The refined extract produced by the standard protocol formed the strongest hydrogels (>1000 g/cm2). On the other hand, the semi-refined extracts produced by the alternative protocols formed slightly stronger hydrogels (337–438 g/cm2) than the refined counterparts (224–311 g/cm2), due to their greater molecular weights of the former ones. LCA assessment showed lower global warming potential for the semi-refined extracts, especially the ultrasound-assisted extraction, hence highlighting the potential of this method to produce more sustainable agar-based extracts for food-related applications. 

Tomato and tomato products are the most consumed vegetables worldwide. However, reduction of their relatively high emission intensity can be a key to mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the agrifood sector. Using the European Union (EU) and its 28 member states as example, we mapped the mass flow and analyzed the efficiency of the entire tomato supply chain from farm to fork for the year 2016. We then explored potentials of a full spectrum of GHG emission mitigation strategies ranging from production-efficiency improvement to process optimization, food-waste reduction, trade-pattern change, and diet-structure change, both individually and in an integrated framework. The results showed that 63% of tomato loss and waste occurred at the processing and consumption stages (over half in Italy and Spain), and 54% of GHG emissions were from production (notably greenhouse based). Although the reduction of tomato products consumption (considered as the substitution by other vegetables) presented the highest potential of emissions reduction, reducing retailing and consumption waste were found to have great effect on GHG emissions reduction as well for all EU member states, especially for United Kingdom and Germany. The combined effects of different mitigation strategies with high levels of change could reduce GHG emissions by 39% compared to the current level. 

About one third of global edible food is lost or wasted along the supply chain, causing the wastage of embedded natural and economic resources. Life cycle methodologies can be applied to identify sustainable and viable prevention and valorization routes needed to prevent such inefficiencies. However, no systemic approach has been developed so far to guide practitioners and stakeholders. Specifically, the goal and scoping phase (e.g. problem assessed or system function) can be characterized by a large flexibility, and the comparability between food waste scenarios could be not ensured. Within the Horizon2020 project Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain, this study aimed to provide practitioners with guidance on how to combine life cycle assessment and environmental life cycle costing in the context of food waste. Recent literature was reviewed to identify relevant methodological aspects, possible commonly adopted approaches, main differences among studies and standards and protocols, main challenges, and knowledge gaps. Basing on this review, an analytical framework with a set of recommendations was developed encompassing different assessment situations. The framework intends to provide a step by step guidance for food waste practitioners, and it is composed of a preliminary section on study purpose definition, three decision trees—respectively on assessment situation(s), costing approach, and type of study (footprint vs. intervention)—and two sets of recommendations. Recommendations can be applied to all levels of the food waste hierarchy, stating a generic order of preference for handling food chain side flows. This consistent and integrated life cycle approach should ensure a better understanding of the impact of specific interventions, thus supporting informed private and public decision making and promoting the design of sustainable and cost-efficient interventions and a more efficient food supply chains. © 2020, The Author(s).