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
Figure 1. Life cycles of the ready and home-made meals. [RDCm and RDCp: Regional distribution centre
for raw materials and products, respectively; T- transport; W - waste]
The raw materials stage involves cultivation of the vegetables and chicken rearing which are then transported
from the farm to the regional distribution centre for raw materials (RDCm) to be processed. It is assumed
that the raw materials (ingredients) are sourced from conventional farms in the UK, except for the
tomatoes used for the tomato paste which are imported from Spain (FAO, 2009). The tomato paste, oil and
salt are transported directly from their respective manufacturers to the meal manufacturer.
The pre-processing stage includes cleaning the vegetables and slaughtering the chickens, packaging in
plastic bags, crates and pallets and subsequent refrigeration. The manufacture involves cooking of the readymade
meal from fresh ingredients, its packaging and transportation to the regional distribution centre for
products (RDCp). Vegetables and tomato paste are cooked together while the chicken meat is cooked separately.
The cooked ingredients are then combined, packaged and refrigerated.
The ready-made meals are stored at the RDCp and then distributed to the retailer as chilled. The assumed
annual refrigerant leakage is 15%; the assumed average wastage of the meal at retailer is 2% (Brunel, 2008).
The ingredients for the home-made meal are chilled at both the RDCp and the retailer. The ready-made
meals and the ingredients for the home-made meal are then transported to consumer’s home.
In the consumption stage, storage and meal preparation at home are considered. The ready-made meal is
cooked in a microwave (according to manufacturers’ recommendations). For the home-made meal, the average
UK practice is assumed with the chicken roasted in the oven and the tomato sauce and the vegetables
cooked on the electric cooker. Note that refrigerated storage at home considers the electricity used but not
refrigerant leakage as domestic refrigerators have negligible leakage rates.
All the primary, secondary and tertiary packaging has been considered, including the ingredients and
ready-made meal packaging, shopping bags, crates, boxes and pallets. All the waste and packaging are assumed
to be landfilled, except for the chicken meat from the RDCm, which is incinerated. These assumptions
are in accordance with the prevalent UK waste management practice for food-related products and
packaging. All road transport is by diesel vehicles, assuming an empty return trip.
2.3. Data sources
An overview of the data used in the study is given in Table 2. As can be seen from the table, most data for
the ingredients correspond to their country of origin considered in this study. The exception is the data for
carrots and onions which are not available for the UK, so Danish data have been used instead (Nielsen et al.,
2003). Furthermore, data for peas are also not available, so proxy data for green beans have been used following
recommendations by Milà i Canals et al., (2011) on dealing with data gaps in the food sector.
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Raw
materials
Pre-processing
Manufacturing
Distribution
Consumption
(meal
preparation)
Disposal
Ready-made meal Home-made meal
Ingredients
RDCm
Packaging
T T
W
T
Manufacturing
T
RDCp
T
Retail
T
Consumption
T
Disposal
W
W
W
Ingredients
RDCm
Retail
Consumption
Disposal
Packaging
T T
W
T
T
T
W