LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 1C: ECODESIGN AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
partial substitute of conventional ingredients. As shown in Figure 1, in the alternative feed formulation the
proportion of soybean was reduced and the other components where adjusted to keep nutrient levels.
However tomato by-products inclusion was limited to 3% due to high fiber content. Energy for drying
process was measured on-site at CTAEX facilities.
Polylactide (PLA) based tray and film were studied as alternative packaging materials for chicken meat
products. An additional co-extruded poly-vinyl alcohol (PVOH) layer was included to provide the gas barrier
proprieties of modified atmosphere packaging. Vinyl acetate copolymer data was used as a proxy for PVOH.
Data of the production process for PLA were based on Althaus et al., (2007).
Table 2. Standard and alternative broiler diet composition (%)
Components Standard (%) Alternative (%)
Corn 40.00 40.00
Wheat 16.38 17.40
Soybean 31.00 28.40
Sunflower seeds 6.00 5.07
Vegetable oil blend 3.00 2.53
Mono-calcium phospate 2.00 2.00
Limestone 0.60 0.60
Mineral and vitamin suplement 0.40 0.40
Salt 0.25 0.25
Lysine 0.18 0.18
Methionine 0.19 0.19
Tomato seeds and peels 0.00 3.00
Environmental impacts associated with chicken life cycle were estimated following ReCiPe
characterisation method (Goedkoop, 2009). Based on the default list of impact categories elaborated by
Guinée et al., (2001). Four impact categories were selected among the so-called “baseline impact
categories”: Climate Change (CC), Ozone Depletion (OD), Acidification Potential (AP) and Eutrophication
Potential (EP). Additionally, Water Depletion (WD) category was also considered, since water consumption
has an important relevance in Spain, especially in Mediterranean areas and Cumulative Energy Demand
(CED) (Jungbluth, et al., 2004) was chosen as an energy flow indicator.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Life cycle impact assessment results
As previous studies on broiler production have pointed out (Leinonen et al., (2012), Pelletier (2007))
LCA results (Figure 2) showed that the major impacts to the environment are caused in the feed production
stage, mainly from the crop cultivation phase, followed by on-farm operations such as heating of broiler
housing or manure storage and spreading. Fodder production showed crucial impacts in most categories but
especially for climate change (CC), ozone depletion (OZ) and freshwater eutrophication (FE) with a global
contribution among 40-50%. In terms of global warming, N2O emissions appeared most important (33%),
followed by CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and transport (31%) and CO2 emissions from deforestation
(26%). Soy used in the poultry feed has a particular influence in the analysed system since it is mainly
imported from Brazil, which is associated to impacts linked to long distance transport and deforestation for
grain production.
Environmental burdens related to broiler production were found to be the most relevant for AC (80%) and
also significant for CC (15%) and FE (33%). This impact was linked to energy consumption, but especially
to NH3, N2O and CH4, emmisions derived from manure handling.
Slaughtering and meat processing involved low relative contributions around 10% for most of the impact
categories, except for water depletion (36%) due to the important amount of water required for cleaning operations.
Product storage and delivery accounted for 15% of the total impact for OZ, and 7% for CC, derived
from emisions related to energy consumption from refrigeration but also refrigerant leakages during refrigerated
transport.
88