Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Five Greek Yogurt Production Systems: A Perspective beyond the Plant Boundaries

Abstract

Greek yogurt (GY), a high-protein-low-fat dairy product, particularly prized for its sensory and nutritional benefits, revolutionized the North American yogurt market in less than a decade, bringing with it new sustainability challenges. Standard GY production generates large volumes of acid whey, a co-product that is a potential source of environmental pollution if not recovered. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of different technologies and identify the main factors to improve GY production. A complete life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to compare the standard technology (centrifugation) with two new technologies (fortification and ultrafiltration) to reduce acid whey volumes. Three milk protein concentrate alternatives were also assessed. Results show that technology choice is not a clear discriminant factor. However, minimizing losses and wastage (accounting for 23 to 25% of the environmental impacts for all indicators) beyond the processing plant and selecting milk ingredients (accounting for 63 to 67% of the impacts) with low environmental impacts are key factors to improve the environmental performance of GY systems. From a methodological perspective, the results also highlight a shortcoming in the current LCA guidelines (2015) issued by the International Dairy Federation to treat the multifunctionality of GY systems.

Food and Sustainability: Is It a Matter of Choice?

“…Data suggest that the main contributing factor to the emitted CO 2 is the production of raw milk (approximately 60-86%), and further processing methods (e.g., cheese production) are less relevant [84,85].…”

Sustainable Performance Assessment towards Sustainable Consumption and Production: Evidence from the Indian Dairy Industry

“…Using a combined Slacks-based measure (SBM) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique, Cecchini et al [27] assessed the environmental performance of dairy companies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) methods have been used to evaluate the environmental impact of the dairy industry [15,26,28]. The performance impact of the multitier supply chain is measured, and a theoretical framework for societal SD was developed by Mohammed et al [29].…”