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Sustainability credentials of sous vide cooking

Thiago_Campos_16892

Hi guys,

First, I'd like to thank you all for putting up such a simple and straightforward learning tool.

Chefsteps is a must for anyone who enjoys food.

I'm an environmental consultant within the food & drink industry and I'd love to know more about the sustainability credentials of sous vide equipment and cooking technique.

What is the energy efficiency compared to other methods?
What is the carbon footprint against other cooking methods?
What is the Water footprint against other cooking methods?
Is there any biodegradable plastic pouches?

I look forward to hear from you.

Best
Thiago

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Comments

Chris_Young_80640

@Thiago — I'm not sure this has been extensively studied. But during MC we researched the efficiency of water baths and it is very high. It's often 70–90% depending on how well insulated the container is, and how often you are taking food out or adding it in. If you do a lot of sous vide cooking, you also tend to be able to reduce things like the amount of extraction you need in the kitchen.

Thiago_Campos_16892

Hi Chris, thank you for getting back on this.

The fact that this topic hasn't been extensively studied makes me even more interested about it.

Sustainability within the food & drink industry is a relatively new topic and I believe that sous vide technique has many "green" credentials against other traditional types of cooking. Energy efficiency, food waste reduction, carbon footprint, water footprint and so on.

jason.r.whitworth

Thiago, its not up yet but i heard in a recap that Diane Kennedy gave a MAD Symposium 2013 speech where she "railed against the sous-vide cooking technique (the bags are environmentally irresponsible)".

I am skeptical of her premise but thought it may be of interest to you.

In any case you may want to check that out when her speech is put up on their site.

http://vimeo.com/madsymposium

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Diana Kennedy HATES sous vide...but Diana Kennedy also HATES Kosher salt, sweet onions, boneless/skinless chicken breasts and MANY other things...so her comment is no surprise.

Anyway, exactly what bags aren't "environmentally irresponsible" in some way?

Unless you're harnessing the magic of thermophilic bacteria and cooking your natural stone bowl held stew in a compost pile or in a geothermal hot spring or via a solar oven your cooking will have measurable sustainability, environmental responsibility and carbon footprint issues.

It's not realistically possible or desirable for most folks to cook in a truly benign way.

jason.r.whitworth

DDF i agree completely.

It seems to me more like just being a contrarian thing to be against sous vide cooking, because its a newish seeming trend (not really all that new).

Manfred_18311

@Tiago_Campos

At a fist glance it appears the SV techniques produce a bigger carbon footprint compared to conventional cooking methods:

- Energy consumption for vacuuming (with the exeption of zip lock bags)

- Production and disposal of the vacuum bags

- Water consumption

- Long cooking times must result in high energy consumption

Heating 9l water over an extended period of time, depending on the size of your IC/SV container, for a bag of five carrots appears like a luxurious waste of recources.

But its not!

Modern immension circulators use a 2.40kW for a 24h service time, the average kW consumption of electrical cook tops for four persons is at 3.36kW for a daily cooking time of two hr. (European average)

Water is a preciouse recource. the water consumption of a permanent IC/SV container compared to conventional cooking goes to a not measurable percentage since the water is easely heated up to a 100C° killing all germs and viruses it can be used almost infinitely. conservative cooked vegetables need water just but once they are done the "water" goes in the sink and with it a fair amount of nutrions, vitamins and minerals. Another fair amount of vitamins ect.just vaporize with the steam. A basically good vegetable stock is spoiled in the sink.

.

So IC/SV provides compared to conventional cooking:

- Less energy consumption

- Less water consumtion, speak "waste water"

- Certainly a gain in conserving vitamins and minerals to a 100%, thus a more healthy cooking.

The IC/SV technics are just on its beginning, once developed for professional chef kitchens it found its way across the cirkle of vanguards, entusiasts, food eletists and a more and more broaden line of chefs. This for a good reason: It is still in its development stage and to juge it only by the use of equipment and devices would be unfair and utters a rigity of the satus quo torwards new and ongoing developments. Developments which by a closer look gives the relevant anwsers for a sustainable modern cooking practise.

Every cook top holds four heat devices; I envison an IC kitchen appliance with four different sized compartments divided by aerogel insulation. A unit practically placed in every housholds kitchen. For now I suppose it is a question of pricing holding back the engineers of the appliance industry from consitering going over it.

The Plastic bags?! I trust the ingenuity of the DIY'ers and the engineers to develop a reusable device.

Ben_Humphrey_18779

Has anybody looked into the recyclability of food saver bags in the Seattle area? I've done a mind boggling amount of research on the compostability of various materials (industrial compost). Freezer paper was a dead end. But that's an aside. Has anybody tried the new J&J compostable ziploc bags? They're only available on their own "Green Choices" store, which is odd. Here's the link: http://www.scjgreenchoices.com/store. I wonder if they will hold up the same as regular ziplocs. Might be a good "green" choice for sous vide recipes that don't require a bomb proof high vacuum seal. Thoughts?

Thiago_Campos_16892

Thanks Manfred, spot on your comments. I believe that SV will keep facing a lot of resistance against traditional methods, but in a world where resources are ever more scarce and food waste is a huge problem, SV cooking seems a no brainer to me and hopefully to an increasing number of chefs.

Thiago_Campos_16892

Good stuff Ben, just a matter of time until we have recyclable SV bags.

Kalle_36817

We heat the water bath but when it gets up to desired temp it takes a lot less energy to keep it there if you have one that is insulated. Regarding recycling plastic bags - that is something we already do in Norway.

Now I pack the food in the same plastic bag that I cook it in so I still use only one plastic bag pr food item. Before I packed it for freezing and throwed the plastic away before I cocked the food not afterwards.

So I'm not that sure the footprint is bigger with SV