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

PARALLEL SESSION 7C: FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD WASTE 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
Table 1. Food waste as a percentage for semi hard cheese
Food waste% MAP* packed sliced cheese Vacuum packed whole pieces
Retail 1.5 1.6
Consumer 7 12
*MAP - Modified atmosphere packaging
Food waste at the consumer stage is measured by detailed data from a waste sorting analysis (Syversen,
2010). The data is based on household waste from a limited area. Data is only recorded for cheese, the samples
of yoghurt waste being too small to enable the calculation of food waste.
The data for food waste at the retail stage is quite similar with regard to the different cheese packagings.
At the consumer stage the food waste is much higher and in addition, it shows a significant difference between
the two cheese packaging solutions. In the case of yoghurt the food waste at the retail stage is higher
for the 500 ml cup than for the other packaging categories.
Table 2. Food waste as a percentage for yoghurt
Food waste% 500 ml cup 8* 125 ml pack Duo-cup Drink bottle
Retail 1.8 0.6 0.7 0.8
Consumer - - - -
In the LCA methodology, waste is normally shown as an output from one system to other systems (material
recycling or energy recovery) or to deposits, where only the impact of waste treatment is included.
Product waste in each part of the chain can be included in the reference flow if the functional unit has been
defined as food being utilised by the consumer. In that case the food waste will be added to the reference
flow of the product, resulting in a higher environmental impact from those earlier stages in the product life
cycle. However, if the food losses are generated at the retail and consumer stages, the environmental impact
should also be placed at these stages. This is the accounting system used in this case study. The global warming
potential from food waste includes both emissions from the production of food as it becomes waste and
the emissions from waste treatment.
3. Results
In the LCA of cheese and the corresponding packaging systems, sliced cheese is compared to cheese in
whole pieces (Curran, 2012). The product system includes the entire life cycle from cradle to grave (Fig. 1).
Since the project focuses on packaging solutions and food waste, the data from farm and dairy produce are
average literature data, and thus it has not been possible to refer to specific allocation rules. The principle of
including both the impact of the production of food waste on the retail and consumer stage and the impact of
waste treatment is also shown in Fig. 1.
The results show that agricultural production has the most important global warming potential (Fig. 2).
Consumer waste is much higher for cheese in whole pieces than for sliced cheese. The use of packaging material
is 5 times higher for sliced cheese when compared with cheese in whole pieces but overall, sliced
cheese has slightly lower global warming than cheese in a whole piece. The packaging system of sliced
cheese itself represents approximately 3% of the total impacts on global warming, but as shown above it
affects the entire system much more than does the production of packaging and packaging waste. The packaging
for cheese in whole pieces represents less than 1% for the total global warming potential. This shows
how the increased use of packaging materials can result in a lower impact, if the packaging solution reduces
product waste.
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