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
2.2. Collection of life cycle based environmental impacts of foods
Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) (kg CO2e/ kg food) and energy use (MJ/kg food) were
taken from the life cycle inventories aggregated and reported by Gonzalez, et al., 2011. Gonzalez, et al.,
present LC results on the basis of 1 kg of food product delivered to the entry port of Gothenburg, Sweden;
meat products are on a bone-free carcass basis, while cereals and beans are reported as dry grain at the port.
Arithmetic means were taken when multiple entries (representing different countries of origin) were reported
for the same food type. Values for vegetables reflect impacts of open-field production rather than production
in heated greenhouses. Values for salmon represent farmed salmon.
A recognized discrepancy in the water content of rice and dry beans between the cooked state as provided
by the USDA Food and Nutrient database and the dry state “as delivered to the entry port” used by Gonzalez
et al., was corrected by assuming that dry rice and beans contain 10% moisture (USDA, 2011). All other
foods are assumed to have moisture content corresponding to that reported by the Food and Nutrient database
(Table 1). While there is likely a discrepancy in water content for meats between the carcass basis and
cooked basis, it is assumed that this is relatively small (