A review of methodological issues affecting LCA of novel food products

Abstract

Background, aim, and scope Life cycle assessment (LCA) was initially developed to answer questions about the environmental impact of available products and services, implying that the product system under study was possible to investigate in detail; however, if new products or processes are to be evaluated, several complications occur. So, this paper aims to review the methodological issues that need careful attention when LCA is used for evaluating novel products, processes, or production from an environmental standpoint, as well as to draw some recommendations related to the best approach when dealing with them. Materials and methods An initial brainstorming on the identification of methodological issues when applying the standard LCA methodology for the evaluation of novel products allowed the identification of the relevant aspects, on which a literature review was then performed. Periodical meetings took place for discussion of the significant references and an agreed approach validated through three case studies on the food sector was defined as result of the procedure.

Three Pillars of Novel Nonthermal Food Technologies: Food Safety, Quality, and Environment

“…However, analysis and comparison of environmental impacts of nonthermal technologies pose a challenge mainly because of the differences in the scale of the facilities and food processed (meat, egg, fruit, vegetables, liquid food, etc.). In most of the cases, these techniques are not implemented in large-scale industrial facilities and are often studied on lab scale or pilot level without deep analysis of the complete process [170]. Technologies, such as pulsed electric field treatment or high-pressure treatment, not only achieve microbial inactivation under mild conditions or inactivate certain enzymes and prevent undesired changes in food but also decrease processing time and decrease energy consuming [6,171].…”

“…It is a scientific method that includes mapping the process, setting the scope and boundaries, collecting data, calculating, evaluating, and interpreting the results with the aim to propose environmental improvements [172]. Hospido et al [170] stress the difficulties in evaluating environmental impact of these technologies in terms of (i) the lack of real data for the inventory phase, which is often based on lab-scale information or theoretical data; (ii) the definition of the functional unit for comparative studies since new products or processes might have unique properties; and (iii) that manufacture of products or processes can be expected to start several years ahead and assumptions on surrounding systems will be required. Once the technologies are transferred from labs to real production plants, novel processing technologies can be compared with existing commercial alternatives and environmental hotspots can be identified [173].…”

A research challenge vision regarding management of agricultural waste in a circular bio-based economy

“…More importantly, although not often discussed, LCA is most often applied as "a posteriori" assessment at fully upscale stages and is therefore only rarely used in early stages of R&D, hence with almost no possibility of feedback and consequently no guidance for eco-design. This was identified and discussed by Hospido et al (2010), but no concrete attempts to operationalise it was presented. However recent developments in the application of LCA for early stage decision support regarding bio-refining has emerged by combination of LCA and Process Flowsheet Simulation, as presented by Corona et al (2018).…”

How to manage uncertainty in future Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) scenarios addressing the effect of climate change in crop production

“…With regard to practical applications of future-oriented scenarios, the systems that have been studied are often complex and come from sectors like waste management and energy (Frischknecht et al, 2009;Münster et al, 2013), transportation (Spielmann et al, 2005), and industry (Cluzel et al, 2013). In the agricultural and food sectors, with the exception of one study addressing the challenges connected with scenario definition in LCA for novel food products (Hospido et al, 2009), the focus of future-oriented scenarios has mainly been on comparison of different options to mitigate GHG emissions in the crop, livestock and bioenergy sectors (Audsley and Wilkinson, 2014;González-García et al, 2012) or comparison of different options for future food supply considering drivers and constraints within developments in technology, economy, population, policy and resource scarcity (Odegard and van der Voet, 2014;Röder et al, 2014). Changes in climate have already caused impacts on natural and human systems, including food production, and according to previsions will have an influence also in the future (IPCC, 2013).…”