A healthy and sustainable diet is possible: Designing personalized menus with multi-objective programming

Abstract

In recent decades, dietary patterns among European countries have been replaced by les healthy alternatives. In addition, there is a growing concern to define sustainable food systems, reflected in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
In this paper, we propose a multi-objective optimization model for the design of individual menus, within the framework of Spanish customs. These must be adjusted to certain healthy conditions (nutritional and derived from the Mediterranean diet), while minimizing the cost and greenhouse gas emissions, trying to remain as similar as possible to a starting menu.
To solve this combinatorial problem, metaheuristic strategies (GRASP and ILS) are applied to generate an extensive Pareto boundary. Each of the efficient solutions that define this Pareto front represents a healthy menu. In addition, in this specific case, more than a thousand efficient menus were obtained, which are more sustainable and economical alternatives to the starting menu.