Nutritional life cycle assessment of mealworm as a potential sustainable protein-rich food

• First nutritional LCA of mealworm as food using industrial-scale data from Germany. • Including nutritional value further emphasizes the benefits of mealworms. • Multifunctionality handling greatly affects LCA results of mealworm production. Mealworms are a potential alternative protein source, offering the potential to reduce environmental impacts while meeting nutritional demands. The objective of this study was to investigate the environmental impacts of a large-scale mealworm production in Germany as food, incorporating nutritional value into the assessment. To achieve this, a nutritional life cycle assessment (nLCA) was performed considering Nutrition Rich Food index (NRF) with OpenLCA and Environment Footprint 3.1. The findings suggest that mealworms offer environmental advantages over conventional animal-based foods across most assessed impact categories. For instance, when adjusting for nutritional quality with NRF9.3, their climate change impact appears substantially lower than that of animal products, while contributing less to the intake of nutrients to be limited. These results highlight the potential of mealworms as a sustainable alternative to traditional animal-based foods, offering a promising solution to reduce environmental impacts while delivering a balanced and adequate nutrient profile.