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
The raw materials, distribution and manufacture of the ready-made meal are the most important contributors
to most impacts from this system. For example, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the raw materials and distribution
each contribute around 25% to the GWP of the ready-made meal, followed by pre-processing and meal
manufacturing (~17% each); packaging contributes around 7%. Meal preparation at home has a relatively
small impact (2%). Among the ingredients, chicken and tomato are the main hotspots, contributing 90% to
GWP from the raw materials stage.
Figure 2. Environmental impacts of the ready- and home-made meals
Figure 3. GWP hotspots for the ready- and home-made meals
4. Conclusions
This study has examined the life cycle environmental impacts of a typical ready-made meal produced and
consumed in the UK. The results suggest that preparing the same meal at home is environmentally more
sustainable than the ready-made meal when the same ingredients are used: the difference in the impacts is on
average 2.7 times in favour of the home-made meal (or 1.23 times if the difference in ozone layer depletion
is not considered). The main reason for this is the avoidance of refrigerant leakage and lower amount of food
waste for the home-made meal system.
646
Global warming potential (kg/functional unit)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
3.83
3.45
GWP [kg CO2 eq.]
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0.96
ADP fossil [MJ]
1.69
29.51
17.22
ADP elements [g Sb eq.]
Ingredients Preprocessing
0.61
0.68
4.64
14.03
AP [g SO2 eq.]
0.73
47.65
41.40
0.00
Readiy-made meal Home-made meal
EP [g PO4 eq.]
14.77
12.75
FAETP x 10^-1 [kg DCB eq.]
1.07
2.92
2.30
HTP x 10^-1 [Kg DCB eq.]
0.73
0.08
14.01
11.98
2.03
1.57
MAETP [t DCB eq.]
Ready-made meal Home-made meal
0.24
ODP x 10 [µg R11 eq.]
0.08
0.11
69.17
3.98
2.51
1.87
POCP [g C2H4 eq.]
0.29
0.01
TETP [g DCB eq.]
Manufacture Distribution Consumption Disposal Packaging Total
3.83
12.67
6.92
3.45