ABSTRACT The impact of dairy foods substitution with plant‐based dairy alternatives (PBDA) on total daily energy and nutrient adequacy as well as greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) and land use (LU) among children and adolescents was examined. Substitution models replacing dairy foods with PBDA on different levels, stratified by PBDA main ingredients as well as fortified and non‐fortified PBDA and resulting total daily energy and nutrient intakes as well as GHGE (kgCO 2 eq) and LU (m 2 × year) per day were calculated using data of the dynamic cohort Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) study (7676 3 day weighed dietary records from 1072 participants, 3–18 years, 52% boys). Intake of energy and most nutrients decreased significantly with increasing substitution levels. Protein intake exceeded dietary reference intakes (DRI) irrespective of substitution level; vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 fell below the DRI from 50% and 75% substitution level onwards, respectively. The decrease in protein intake was lower for soy‐ than for oat‐based PBDA. Only with 100% substitution of dairy foods with fortified PBDA did median intakes of vitamin B 2 and vitamin B 12 reach the DRI. Calcium intake decreased significantly and was well below the DRI at all substitution levels, whereas iron intake increased and almost reached the DRI at a 100% substitution level. GHGE and LU decreased significantly with the increasing degree of substitution. This study shows an improvement of indicators for environmental sustainability when substituting dairy products with PBDA and underlines the potential of fortification of PBDA to improve nutrient adequacy.
Hohoff et al. (Fri,) studied this question.