Study on correlation between food consumption and discharge of domestic pollutants in urban area

In this study, the regulations of pollutant discharge in the whole process of food consumption (from pre-market food treatment to food processing, digest and pollutant discharge) were investigated Results suggested that potential pollutant-discharge coefficients were affected by the kinds of food and nutrients; the potential pollution of grain was the greatest while grain, vegetable, meat, fruit and sea food were major potential pollution sources and took up over 90% of potential pollutant discharge; the sequence of the effects of different food processing methods on environment was: frying and stewing >; braising and boiling; the discharge coefficients for various pollutant indices were sequenced as RBOD5<;RCOD<;RTN<;RTP; except COD discharge coefficient, all other pollutant discharge coefficients of women were significantly higher than those of men; the diet structure and food match were also important factors that affected the pollutant discharge coefficients of human body. Presently, the basic variation trend of Chinese diet structure is the reduction in the consumption of cereal and yam and the increase in animal food Therefore, attentions should be paid to the potential environmental problems induced by changes in the food consumption structure.