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

PARALLEL SESSION 4B: DIET 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
consisting of only nutrients to be limited were not regarded as suitable for linking to the LCA by means of
FU because they do not represent a benefit gained from food, but rather a disadvantage.
The nutrient indexes attempt to represent a general nutritional value for individual foods by reflecting dietetic
nutritional values. They are intended for application to all types of food. Indexes are meant to be applied
to unfortified foods as they are intended to illustrate the natural nutritional value of food. In this study however,
drinks were fortified, like skimmed milk with vitamin D, and oat drink and soya drink with calcium and
vitamin D. These products are generally fortified, milk actually even by law (in Finland). They are used as
alternative drinks linked to meals.
The test calculation included several foods from several product groups. Nutritional data were based on
national nutrition recommendations (Anon., 2005) and national food composition database (Fineli® - Finnish
Food Composition Database). LCA results in categories of climate change and eutrophication potential used
in the calculations are approximations for final products derived from raw material use (recipes) and LCA
data from previous studies (Saarinen et al., 2012; Usva et al., 2012; see also Virtanen et al., 2011 and
Saarinen et al., 2011), the Ecoinvent database and Wanhalinna (2010). LCA results for most products represent
raw material production of main ingredients on farm, but the LCA results for rye breads include also
baking. LCA results for bread are not sensitive to the production method and “ the darkness of bread”, so
they were only applied to industrial rye bread and light bread in environmental calculations (excluding traditional
rye bread and whole grain wheat bread, unlike in the nutritional calculation). Manufacture of added
calcium and vitamin D for fortified soy drink and oat drink were not included in the LCA values. The LCA
values for skimmed milk represent milk from the dairy, i.e. there was no allocation applied that differentiated
milk and fat. LCA results for macaroni were not available, nor were information on recipe. Therefore macaroni
was not included in the environmental calculation. The eutrophication potential of olive oil, and rye and
light bread were not available, so they were not included in the eutrophication calculation.
The nutrient indexes were combined in the LCA by the formula:
390
E/N index = LCA result / nutrient index (equation 1)
Both LCA results and nutrient index measure were calculated per 100 g of a product.
Table 1. Nutrient indexes tested in the study.
Nutrient index Formula Nutrients included
Nutrient Rich Food,
NRF9
NRF9 = Σ1–9((Nutrient/DV) * 100)/9 Protein, fibre,
Ca, Fe, Mg, K,
Vit A, C and E
Naturally Nutrient Rich, NNR = Σ₁₋₁₅((Nutrient/DV) * 100)/15 Protein, fibre, MUFA,
NNR
Ca, Fe, Zn, K,
Vit A, C, D, E, thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), B12
and folate
Nutrient Adequacy Ratio, NAR15 = Σ₁₋₁5((Nutrient/DV) * 100)/15 Protein, fibre,
NAR15
Ca, Fe, Mg,
Vit A, C, D, E, thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin
(B3), pyridoxine (B6), B12, and folate
3. Results
3.1. Nutrient index scores
Nutrient indexes NRF9, NNR15 and NAR15 rank foods quite similarly (Figure 1). In general, vegetables,
vegetable oils, fruits and berries and rye breads fare well according to every index. However, indexes seem
to treat meat and fish products differently and also vegetable oils.