Thinking beyond the can': Mainstreaming UK beans in healthy meals (BeanMeals)

Project Description

A key challenge for the UK food system is how to move towards healthier diets with lower environmental impact while also enhancing local and national enterprise. However, moderating consumption of foods that are high in fats, sugar and salt (HFSS) requires coordinated action across the food system.

BeanMeals will directly address this by researching how to transform the food system based on systemic innovation in institutional catering and home-cooking by using healthier ingredients, new public procurement practises and more-local products. By starting with the meal and working backwards through the supply chain to the grower, research will be based on a 'fork-to-farm' concept (a disruption of the productionist 'farm-to-fork' paradigm). It will feature meals made from a quick-cooking navy bean variety ('Capulet') which has recently been developed at the University of Warwick for UK growing conditions. Not only will this bean need less energy for processing, and transport emissions will be reduced because it is locally-grown, but it is also suitable for a wide range of easily-prepared institutional- and home-cooked meals with lower fat, salt and sugar content. Capulet production is poised to scale with commercial partners, and increased UK production would reduce the amount of dry navy beans (used in tinned baked beans) imported from North America, thereby lessening the environmental costs of shipping and opening new local enterprise opportunities.

BeanMeals aims to develop and analyse systemic innovations (i.e. innovations that require collaboration between multiple actors) for reducing HFSS consumption in institutional and home-cooking by using UK-grown navy beans. Research will develop a new 'fork-to-farm' paradigm of the systemic innovation of dietary change, which can be seen as 'reverse-engineering': start with preparation and consumption of the meal, and work backwards though the 'missing middle' (i.e. the retailers/wholesalers, distributors, secondary and primary processors, and the associated logistics), to the grower. By crossing research disciplines with innovation topics in its research design, we will determine both how best to bring about systemic innovation, and analyse the health, environment and enterprise impacts of the transformed system. The project will be centred on Leicestershire, and has been co-designed with a range of local partners co-convened by Leicestershire County Council (LCC), including Leicester City Council, Food for Life and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), who all see the potential for enhanced outcomes for local health, environment and enterprise. The potential benefits at the UK-level have been identified by organisations with a national remit, including Defra, FSA, NFU, WWF and CIWF.