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Unrefined plant raw materials are key to nutritious food

Nature Food volume 6, pages 657–663 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Food processing often overlooks nature’s complexity, favouring purified raw materials. This excessive purification fosters unsustainable practices and diminishes the taste and nutritional quality of food. Given the current global environmental and health crises, we propose three food innovation principles to embrace the complexity of plant raw materials: (1) leveraging the inherent chemical, physical, biological and nutritional potential of raw materials; (2) applying robust food processes that cope with raw material complexity; and (3) designing food products from field to colon. Adhering to these principles will allow the development of technologies that could transform raw materials into healthier, more sustainable food products.

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Fig. 1: Component-based versus synergistic food processing.
Fig. 2: The three FIPs.
Fig. 3: Examples of processes fulfilling FIPs 1–3.

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Acknowledgements

P.A.R., T.G. and A.B. thank the ETH Foundation for their generous support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Till Germerdonk, Andrea Bach & Patrick A. Rühs

  2. Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Alejandro G. Marangoni

  3. Planted Foods AG, Kemptthal, Switzerland

    Kim Mishra

Authors
  1. Till Germerdonk
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  2. Andrea Bach
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  3. Alejandro G. Marangoni
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  4. Kim Mishra
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  5. Patrick A. Rühs
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Contributions

T.G. and A.B. contributed equally to this work. T.G., A.B., K.M. and P.A.R. conceptualized the work. T.G., A.B., K.M., A.G.M. and P.A.R. wrote the original draft. A.B. created Figs. 1–3. T.G., A.B. and P.A.R. revised the final version of the paper. All authors reviewed the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kim Mishra or Patrick A. Rühs.

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Nature Food thanks Jose Miguel Aguilera, Lilia Ahrné and Caroline Joy Steel for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Germerdonk, T., Bach, A., Marangoni, A.G. et al. Unrefined plant raw materials are key to nutritious food. Nat Food 6, 657–663 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01195-y

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