A study of European households found that Food and drink causes a fourth of the total various environmental impacts. Globally does the food sector account for 22 % of all the greenhouse gas emissions. The climate impact from different foods do however vary significantly, and meat products does generally cause higher greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based foods. A reduction of the meat consumption is suggested by many researchers as one of the most important measures in order to move towards a more sustainable food consumption and production. The grocery retailers have an important role as gatekeepers between the consumer and the products, and the aim of this thesis is to study a transition towards a larger range and increased sales of plant-based protein alternatives to meat from the retailers’ perspective. It does so by attempting to identify drivers and barriers from their point of view. Data was collected through interviews with representatives for the largest retailer groups (n=3) and interviews with store managers (n=8) as well as by examining the product range in the stores (n=10). Grocery stores were located in two different cities; the district Södermalm in central Stockholm and Östersund, a mid-sized town in the Northern parts of Sweden. The results from the interviews showed an increase in the range as well as the sales of vegetarian products at all the participating retailers and stores, and all the interviewees believed that this will continue to increase even further in the future. Flexitarians and young people stands out as the main groups of consumers who buy these products and thus lies behind this increase. What drives the consumers has been identified as an increased awareness, an improved product range and media attention. From the retailers’ perspective it is also now considered a competitive advantage to offer an attractive range of these products. Price has been identified as one of the main barriers for a future expansion of the sales these vegetarian alternatives, but several of the participants also believed that a lot of people are not at all interested in lowering their meat consumption which would be a central obstacle to overcome to get a wide spread in society as a whole. Even if the products have improved recently they may still not be attractive enough to be considered as an alternative for all consumers. The findings also indicate that there is a relatively small difference between the two participating cities, with the main exception that the stores at Södermalm in general offers more perishable vegetarian alternatives than the stores in Östersund does. The most significant differences, regarding product range, was found within ICA (Sweden’s largest food retailer) where the stores are privately owned and the store managers can choose assortment which differs from the other two large retailers Axfood and Coop where it is centrally controlled. The representatives from the retailer groups had rather different views on their ownrole in the development of the vegetarian alternatives but also on what future measures they believed are needed for a future development and impact. This has consequences for the consumers as the range differs to a large degree, to some extent between the different retailer groups, but mainly within the largest one (ICA). The results from this study cannot be generalised, but may provide new insights to a perspective that seems to not have been studied before and might constitute a point of departure for future research. / Mat och dryck står för ungefär en fjärdedel av vår miljö- och klimatpåverkan och globalt står livsmedelssektorn för 22 % av alla växthusgasutsläpp. Klimatpåverkan varierar dock kraftigt mellan olika typer av livsmedel och generellt sett är utsläppen från kött flera gånger större än för vegetabiliska livsmedel. Att minska köttkonsumtionen och övergå till mer vegetabiliska proteiner anses vara en av de viktigaste åtgärderna för att nå en mer hållbar matkonsumtion. Som länken mellan varan och konsumenten har dagligvaruhandeln en viktig roll för att förutsättningarna ska finnas på plats. Den här studien syftar till att undersöka handelns syn på utvecklingen av en ökad´andel vegetariska alternativ till kött, genom att belysa drivkrafter, hinder samt hur utbudet ser ut. Data samlades in genom intervjuer med centrala representanter för ICA, Coop och Axfood (n=3) samt genom intervjuer med butikschefer (n=8) och sortimentsundersökningar i butik (n=10) i en stor respektive mellanstor svensk stad (på Södermalm i Stockholm samt i Östersund). Resultaten visar att försäljningen och utbudet av vegetariska produkter har de senaste åren ökat kraftigt hos alla medverkande butiker och bolag, och utvecklingen tros även fortsätta i framtiden. Det är främst flexitarianer och unga som är drivande för utvecklingen, och en ökad medvetenhet (miljö, hälsa och djurvälfärd) samt att utbudet blivit bättre pekas ut som bidragande orsaker. För butikerna och bolagen själva är det även en konkurrensfördel att ha ett bra vegetariskt utbud. Ett av de främsta hindren som kommit fram för den fortsatta utvecklingen är att det är många som inte är intresserade av att minska sin köttkonsumtion, att produkterna inte är tillräckligt attraktiva och att de kan vara dyra. Resultaten visar också att skillnaden i utbud mellan städerna är relativt liten, med undantaget att det är en mindre andel färska alternativ i Östersund än på Södermalm. De största skillnaderna i hur många vegetariska alternativ som kunden har att välja på (oberoende av stad) finns inom ICA som drivs av privata handlare och där butikerna i större grad kan påverka sitt sortiment, tillskillnad från Axfood och Coop där sortimenten centralstyrs. De centrala representanter som medverkat har olika syn på sin egen roll i utvecklingen samt vilka åtgärder som behövs för en fortsatt utveckling. För konsumenten finns det en relativt stor skillnad i bredden på det vegetariska utbudet beroende på vilken butik de väljer att gå till, vilket verkar vara en konsekvens av vilken nivå sortimentet bestäms på. Resultaten från studien går inte attgeneraliseras, men de kan ge nya insikter i ett perspektiv som inte verkar studerats tidigare och vara en utgångspunkt för framtida studier.

<p dir="ltr">Pea protein is one of the most used plant proteins in food products, acting as an alternative to conventional animal protein sources due to its abundant, nutritious, and ease in supply chain characteristics. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of homogenization and UHT processing parameters on the properties of protein emulsion. Protein emulsions (8% w/w pea protein isolate and 1% w/w sunflower oil) were freshly prepared prior to processing, and the untreated sample was considered as the control (NT). The pilot-scale aseptic processing system (APS) used in this study consisted of two coil-in-shell heaters and two coolers. Samples flowed through each section of the APS system following this order: balance tank, pre-heater, final heater, hold tube, pre-cooler, and final cooler. The homogenizer was located either after the pre-cooler (AC) or the pre-heater (AH) with a controlled temperature of 165F. A third setup was utilized by bypassing the homogenizer in the UHT system. An additional 8-hour continuous run was conducted to mimic a commercial manufacturing operation by recirculating the protein emulsion in the UHT system, and fouling detections were made using a non-intrusive sensor (NICS). 5% w/w soy protein, 1% w/w sunflower oil oil-in-water emulsion was also used for fouling tests. Protein concentration, pH and zeta potential, Cryo-SEM microscopic image, particle size distribution, flocculation index (FI), coalescence index (CI), viscosity and color data were collected and analyzed. The protein concentration had a 23.20 ± 4.00 %, 28.35 ± 5.02 %, 27.98 ± 5.05% and 21.38 ± 5.75% reduction for AC, AH, UHT and NT samples, respectively, when compared with the initial concentration in the formula. AC, AH, UHT and NT samples had pH values of 7.24 ± 0.01, 7.27 ± 0.01, 7.28 ± 0.02, 7.41 ± 0.01, and zeta potential values of -42.91 ± 0.89, -47.30 ± 0.91, -46.91 ± 1.40 and -50.11 ± 1.47 mV. AC sample had a smaller and NT sample had a bigger, respectively, mean weighted size D 4,3 value than AH and UHT samples, which could also be seen in Cryo-SEM images where only AC images contained more visually observable smaller particles. FI and CI for AC, AH and UHT indicated the formation of flocs but no irreversible aggregations were found. Shear-thinning AC, AH, UHT and NT samples had viscosity decreases from 4.00 to 3.56, 3.88 to 3.75, 4.02 to 3.79 and 10.42 to 9.56 mPa*s in 1 1/s to 100 1/s shear rate range. NT sample had a very noticeable color difference from the other three treated samples. Overall, AC samples had similar or better emulsion stability in all aspects than AH and UHT samples, suggesting that AC processing could potentially be used in the protein beverage industry for manufacturing products with improved shelf stability. Severe foulants buildups were neither observed nor detected by a non-intrusive continuous sensor (NICS) in the UHT system within 8 hours of process for both pea protein and soy protein emulsion, indicating that this UHT-homogenization processing can potentially be adapted to current industrial practices for higher-quality protein beverages.</p>