Abstract
Background, aims, and scope
Food is a vital human need that not only provides essential nutrition but is also a key part of our social life as well as being a valued sensory experience. However, food, or rather the production chain of food, from primary production (agriculture/aquaculture/fishing) to consumer and beyond, also results in some form of environmental impact, as does transport between steps. There are several life cycle assessment studies of food products, most of them analysing the impact of the food chain of single food items. Still, detailed studies of complete meals are less frequent in the literature. In the Swedish study presented in this article, the environmental impacts of two different chicken meals (homemade and semi-prepared) were analysed. The aim of the study was to gain knowledge of the environmental impact of integrated food chains and also to explore the effect of improvement measures in the post-farm systems. To this end, two chicken meals were chosen for analysis, with two scenarios for each meal; the first scenario reflects the present conditions of the food chain, and the second scenario incorporates a number of improvement actions in the stages after the farm.
Materials and methods
Input data to the model were based mainly on previous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of Swedish food products and studies on wastage and consumer transport. Food engineering data and information from producing companies were used for modelling the industries. The improvement scenario was constructed using insight from a preceding LCA study of a meatball meal (Sonesson et al., Ambio, 34:411–418, 2005a) along with goals set out by a Swedish agreement between representatives from national and regional government, food industry sectors and retailers. The impact assessment was conducted according to Lindfors et al. (Nordic guidelines on life cycle assessment, The Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1995), and the following environmental effects were included: global warming potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, and use of primary energy carriers and secondary energy.
Results
In terms of energy use, the largest part is used in the steps after the farm for both meal types. Hence, the changes made in the improvement scenario have a significant impact on the total energy use. For the homemade and semi-prepared meal, the reduction is 15% and 20% respectively, not only due to less consumer transport and packaging but also reduction in industry (semi-prepared). Agriculture is also a significant contributor to emissions of greenhouse gases and eutrophying emissions; for the homemade meal, around 40% of the greenhouse gases originate from agriculture, and for the semi-prepared meal, the figure is 50%. The improvement actions with the greatest reduction in greenhouse gases are, again, less consumer transport and, in the case of the semi-prepared meal, the reduction in energy use in industry. Regarding eutrophication, more than 90% of the emissions originate from agriculture. Hence, the only improvement action that has an effect here is the utilisation of raw material downstream in the production chain; a slight reduction in waste still gives a notable reduction in overall eutrophic emissions.
Discussion
There are two significant areas of research to reduce the impact of meals that are not explored in this study: choice of meal components and production methods in agriculture. However, the aim with this study was to explore if there are further ways of reducing the impact without going into these very complex areas, and our conclusion is that there are effective ways in the post-farm chain to cut emissions that, together with choices of diet and agricultural research, can significantly reduce the impact of our food consumption.
Conclusions
Actions in the post-farm chain that can significantly reduce the environmental impact of a meal are less food thrown away in the household, fewer car trips to the supermarket (e.g. only once a week) and, for semi-prepared food products, more efficient energy use in the food industry. The study shows that consumer actions prove just as important as industrial actions.
Recommendations and perspectives
Further research is needed to understand the mechanism for the disposal of food, i.e. the reasons for food being wasted, and the relationship between shopping frequency, retail location, size of packaging, etc. in order to reduce the impact of waste and consumer transport.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahlgren M (2004) Ready meal consumption—when, where, why, and by whom? Licentiate dissertation, Örebro Studies in Culinary Arts and Meal Science 3, Örebro University, Sweden
Andersson K, Ohlsson T (1999) Life cycle assessment of bread produced on different scales. Int J Life Cycle Assess 4(1):25–40
Anonymous (2002) Maten och miljön—livscykelanalys av sju livsmedel (Food and the environment—life cycle assessment of seven foods; in Swedish). Swedish Farmers’ Association (Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund), Stockholm, Sweden
Axell M (2002) Vertical display cabinets in supermarkets—energy efficiency and the influence of air flows. PhD thesis, Department of Building Services Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Carlsson-Kanyama A (1998) Climate change and dietary choices—how can emissions of greenhouse gases from food consumption be reduced? Food Policy 23(3–4):277–293
Carlsson-Kanyama A, Ekström M, Shanahan H (2003) Food and life cycle energy inputs: consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency. Ecol Econ 44(2–3):293–307
Cederberg C, Stadig M (2003) System expansion and allocation in life cycle assessment of milk and beef production. Int J Life Cycle Assess 8(6):350–356
CEN (European Committee for Standardization) (2004) Packaging—requirements specific to manufacturing and composition—prevention by source reduction. EN 13428:2004, European Committee for Standardisation, Brussels, Belgium
Duchin F (2005) Sustainable consumption of food—a framework for analyzing scenarios about changes in diets. Indust Ecol 9(1–2):99–114
EC (1994) European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste. Official Journal of the European Parliament, No L 365/10 of 1994-12-31
Food 21 (2004) Annual Report Food 21 2003. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Gerbens-Leenes P, Nonhebel S (2002) Consumption patterns and their effects on land requirement for food. Ecol Econ 42(1–2):185–199
Hospido A, Moreira MT, Feijoo G (2003) Simplified life cycle assessment of Galician milk production. Int Dairy Journal 13:783–796
Johansson H (2002a) Förpackningars utveckling—förändringar i en varukorg 1993–2000 [Development of packaging—changes in a shopping basket 1993–2000; in Swedish]. Packforsk—Institutet för Förpackning och Logistik AB, Kista, Sweden
Johansson H (2002b) Vidare analys av EcoDriving-mätningar i Mölndal [Further analysis of EcoDriving in Mölndal; in Swedish]. Report 2002:1, TFK—Transport Research Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Kramer K, Moll H, Nonhebel S, Wilting H (1999) Greenhouse gas emissions related to Dutch food consumption. Energ Policy 27:203–216
Lindfors L-G, Christiansen K, Hoffman L, Virtanen Y, Juntilla V, Hanssen O-J, Rønning A, Ekvall T, Finnveden G (1995) Nordic guidelines on life-cycle assessment. The Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen, Denmark
Roth A (2000) Assessing long-term environmental goals in goods transportation. Licentiate thesis, Department of Transportation and Logistics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
SEPA (1997a) Att äta för en bättre miljö [Eating for a better environment; in Swedish]. Report 4830, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, Sweden
SEPA (1997b) Fosfor—livsnödvändigt, ändligt och ett miljöproblem [Phosphorous—essential, limited and an environmental problem; in Swedish]. Report 4730, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm
SEPA (1997c) Kväve från land till hav [Nitrogen from land to sea; in Swedish]. Report 4735, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm
SEPA (1997d) Kväveläckage från svensk åkermark [Nitrogen leakage from Swedish agricultural land; in Swedish]. Report 4741, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm
SEPA (2004) Sweden’s National Inventory Report 2004. Submitted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, Sweden
Sonesson U, Berlin J (2002) Environmental impact of future milk supply chains in Sweden: a scenario study. J Cleaner Prod 11(3):253–266
Sonesson U, Janestad H, Raaholt B (2003) Energy preparation and storing of food—models for calculation of energy use for cooking and cold storage in households. SIK report 709, SIK—The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Sonesson U, Jönsson H, Mattsson B (2004) Postconsumption sewage treatment in environmental systems analysis of foods—a method for including potential eutrophication. Indust Ecol 8(3):51–64
Sonesson U, Mattsson B, Nybrant T, Ohlsson T (2005a) Industrial processing versus home cooking—an environmental comparison between three ways to prepare a meal. Ambio 34(4–5):411–418
Sonesson U, Antesson F, Davis J (2005b) Home transport and wastage of food—environmental relevant household activities. Ambio 34(4–5):371–375
Sonesson U, Davis J (2005) Environmental systems analysis of meals—model description and data used for two different meals. SIK report 735, SIK—The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Gothenburg, Sweden
SPMA (2007) The Swedish Poultry Meat Association. http://www.svenskfagel.se. Cited June 2007
Ziegler F, Nilsson P, Mattsson B, Walther Y (2003) Life cycle assessment of frozen cod fillets including fishery-specific environmental impacts. Int J Life Cycle Assess. 8(1):39–47
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Niels Jungbluth
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davis, J., Sonesson, U. Life cycle assessment of integrated food chains—a Swedish case study of two chicken meals. Int J Life Cycle Assess 13, 574–584 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-008-0031-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-008-0031-y