In a paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Dr. Chris Macdonald explored the best sources of protein currently available.
To answer the question, Macdonald had to build a new holistic scoring system that combines measures of environmental impact, health, affordability and availability into a single framework.
Applying the scoring system to 20 commonly consumed protein-rich foods, the analysis found a striking pattern: every product in the highest-scoring quintile was plant-based, while every product in the lowest-scoring quintile was animal-based. Tofu ranked first overall, while cheddar cheese ranked last.
The paper argues that many existing food rating systems focus on only one aspect of a product. While useful, these single-dimension labels can obscure important trade-offs and make it difficult to compare foods comprehensively.
TOFU DOMINATION
Link to open access article https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full
I’m sure it’d still score highly if not, but I wonder if the study accounts for the burning of plastic to cook it? https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/10/tofu-plastic-indonesia
That is not a general practice. From the article:
OTOH, I doubt they trace whether it is sold to another company that makes canned meals ready to eat, for export.
and the worst thing is thdt in all forms of meat too there are microplastica found in them too
It’s a shame because plastic could be converted into biodiesel, which would then be clean burning. It could even be burnt in a diesel engine which would provide both heat energy and also kinetic energy that could spin a generator. The article made no mention of this. Would be interesting to know if that was considered, and what the cost would be for the chemicals needed for the conversion.
This is a “western” waste disposal problem, not a tofu-production related problem. Do you think they would use it to fuel their factories if we wouldn’t dump our trash there?
What made you think I was vilifying them for it? I was only curious about whether that sort of thing counts in this scoring system.