Environmental impact of a new concept of food service: A case study for the re-use of naval shipping containers

This study aims to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a new street food format for food service based on the re-use of naval shipping containers and to compare it with the conventional one (street food truck). The environmental impact analysis was performed using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The functional unit (FU) was identified in the food service, including three food preparations: a dish of pasta (100 g), one sandwich (150 g) and one portion of fries (200 g). Following a \u201cfrom cradle to gate\u201d approach, the factors studied are: (i) the customization of a shipping container in a street food format, (ii) the construction and use of the cooking appliance, (iii) the logistics, (iv) the cooking phase (including final packaging as food cup). The life cycle of ingredients for food preparations has been neglected due to the variability of the products. The results show that the two higher hotspots are electricity consumed by cooking appliance (35%) and oil used to fry (34%), attributable only to the fries preparation. The third hotspot is imputable to the customized structure, with an average percentage value equal to 15%. Considering the global warming impact category, the customization into a street food format release 1280 kg CO2eq, while the production of a new container or a new street food truck format implies the emission of 12,800 kg CO2eq and 20,900 kg CO2eq respectively. The impact of the customized container (re-used container) weight for 0.04 kg CO2eq/FU, this value increases 11.6 times for a new container street food format, and 17 times for a new street food truck format. Overall, quantifying the environmental damage, the results showed how the re-use of a naval shipping container can be a way to reduce the environmental impact of food preparation, avoiding dismissing or building activity of the structure reducing the impact of the structure of about 95% offering a more sustainable street food services

Environmental benefits : conventional vs innovative packaging for olive oil

In the last years, different issues as costs and lower availability of materials and resources became a driving force to increase the sustainability of agro-food activity. In this scenario, the olive oil industry is characterized by different processes that could affect the environment. Moreover, the plastic packaging used in the sector could have a relevant environmental impact referred both to the production phase and to the disposal scenario. Therefore, the aim on the work was the evaluation of the environmental impact of two different mono-use olive oil packaging. This study is part of the project \u201cSustainability of olive oil System (S.O.S.)\u201d, funded by AGER. A conventional packaging composed by polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PU) and aluminium was compared to a bio-based packaging composed by biopolyethylene (Bio-PE), polylactic acid (PLA) and a thin layer of aluminium. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed to identify the environmental profiles of the two packaging. The functional unit was defined as one mono-use packaging (10 mL volume). The study considered the environmental performance related to all the activities from the raw material extraction, through the transformation phases, till the disposal scenario. The comparison of the two packaging showed that the conventional packaging affects more in the impact category \u201cclimate change\u201d (1,5 times), \u201chuman toxicity\u201d (1,4 times) and in \u201cresource depletion\u201d where the results are 4 times higher respect to the innovative packaging due to the extraction of non-renewable raw materials. Nevertheless, higher impacts are attributable to the biobased packaging for ecosystem quality categories as \u201ceutrophication\u201d (1,2 times), \u201cfreshwater ecotoxicity\u201d (1,5 times) and \u201cacidification\u201d (1,2 times). Analysing the waste management scenario, it is not possible to identify a clear disposal procedure due to the composition of the packaging, the consumers\u2019 behaviour and the regional regulations. Therefore, in this study it was supposed the incineration of both the products. In conclusion it is not possible to confirm that the bio-based olive oil packaging is more environmentally friendly respect to the conventional one, due to the land use and to the need as well of impacting chemical processes also to produce the bio-based films

The E-LCA as a tool to quantify the environmental impact of meat and legumes-based burgers

Thanks to its high biological and nutritional values, the meat has always been considered an interesting food for a good diet. However, ethical reasons, religious restrictions and the high prices have driven the consumers\u2019 behaviours towards alternative products. Nowadays, the demand for new food formulations has an upward trend. This is also due to the growing awareness of consumers about the environmental impact of food productions. In this scenario, the legumes are considered an alternative food compared to meat. For this reason, one of the aims of the international project \u201cLegume Genetic Resources as a tool for development of innovative and sustainable food Technological system\u201d (LeGeReTe) is to evaluate the environmental sustainability of legume-based products. An Environmental-Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) was performed to evaluate the environmental profile of one meat burger and one legume-based burger. A conventional functional unit of \u20181 burger (100 g)\u2019 and an alternative one of \u201815 g of proteins\u2019 were used, applying for the study a \u201cfrom cradle to grave\u201d approach. The environmental impact assessment helped to identify the most impactful activities: for both the production chains, the agricultural phases were identified as the most damaging. Regarding the production processes, the legume-based burger was identified as the most energy demanding compared to the meat burger. Considering a functional unit of 1 burger, the results suggest that the meat burger is 3.44 times more impactful compared to the legume-based burger. While switching to a nutritional functional unit (15 g of proteins), the results showed that to reach the same protein content of a meat burger, is necessary to double the legume-based burger production which remains anyway the most sustainable option. In conclusion, the legume-based burger can be defined as the most environmentally-friendly solution both from a production and from a nutritional point of view

Life cycle thinking applied to the analyses sector : a case study on olive oil analyses using E-LCA and LCC approach

The Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is an approach that aims to evaluate the sustainability profile of a process, a product or a service, and takes in account all the steps involved in the life cycle. In the olive oil production chain, the activities related to the analyses of olives maturity index and of the quality parameters of the olive oils were neglected by LCT studies so far. Therefore, the aim of the work was to evaluate the sustainability of the analyses performed on olives and olive oils, comparing the chemical methods with the optical one base on visible and near infrared spectroscopy (vis/NIR). The assessment considers the different ways to perform the analyses. The chemical one consists in a destructive approach using reagents, different devices and with high energy consumption for some steps; vis/NIR does not need any sample-preparation, reagents and requires less time. The Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) was applied to evaluate the environmental sustainability. Moreover, the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis was carried out to quantify the economic sustainability of the two method of analyses. The functional unit was defined as one analysis and for both the two methods a \u201cfrom cradle to grave\u201d approach was used identifying all the inputs (data, amount of resources or raw materials, devices or chemicals that enter in one process) and outputs (final materials and waste materials) of the chemical and optical analyses. The environmental profile comparison allows to identify that the vis/NIR analysis is sharply better, 38 times than the chemical one. Regarding the LCC evaluation, the single analysis has quite the same price and the variation is due to the chemicals and analytical tools used. Even for the LCC evaluation, the optical analysis is preferable and cheaper, showing costs 60% less compared to the chemical analysis. In conclusion, considering the E-LCA and the LCC methods, the optical analyses are more sustainable than the chemical ones. Optical analyses as vis/NIR spectroscopy can be properly defined as green technologies

Environmental benefits : conventional vs innovative packaging for olive oil

In the last years, different issues as costs and lower availability of materials and resources became a driving force to increase the sustainability of agro-food activity. In this scenario, the olive oil industry is characterized by different processes that could affect the environment. Moreover, the plastic packaging used in the sector could have a relevant environmental impact referred both to the production phase and to the disposal scenario. Therefore, the aim on the work was the evaluation of the environmental impact of two different mono-use olive oil packaging. This study is part of the project \u201cSustainability of olive oil System (S.O.S.)\u201d, funded by AGER. A conventional packaging composed by polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PU) and aluminium was compared to a bio-based packaging composed by biopolyethylene (Bio-PE), polylactic acid (PLA) and a thin layer of aluminium. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed to identify the environmental profiles of the two packaging. The functional unit was defined as one mono-use packaging (10 mL volume). The study considered the environmental performance related to all the activities from the raw material extraction, through the transformation phases, till the disposal scenario. The comparison of the two packaging showed that the conventional packaging affects more in the impact category \u201cclimate change\u201d (1,5 times), \u201chuman toxicity\u201d (1,4 times) and in \u201cresource depletion\u201d where the results are 4 times higher respect to the innovative packaging due to the extraction of non-renewable raw materials. Nevertheless, higher impacts are attributable to the biobased packaging for ecosystem quality categories as \u201ceutrophication\u201d (1,2 times), \u201cfreshwater ecotoxicity\u201d (1,5 times) and \u201cacidification\u201d (1,2 times). Analysing the waste management scenario, it is not possible to identify a clear disposal procedure due to the composition of the packaging, the consumers\u2019 behaviour and the regional regulations. Therefore, in this study it was supposed the incineration of both the products. In conclusion it is not possible to confirm that the bio-based olive oil packaging is more environmentally friendly respect to the conventional one, due to the land use and to the need as well of impacting chemical processes also to produce the bio-based films

Environmental benefits: Traditional vs innovative packaging for olive oil

The olive oil industry is an important sector in Europe, the related production process is characterized by different practices and techniques associated to several adverse effects on the environment, both for the agricultural procedures and for olive oil extraction process. The goal of this work is to develop a new packaging solution to better preserve the oil quality trying to reduce food losses and environmental impact. In detail, a comparison between traditional and innovative packaging was carried out. This work is part of a larger project \u201cSustainability of olive oil System project (S.O.S.)\u201d, financed by AGER \u2013 Agroalimentare e Ricerca, whose purpose is to improve the environmental sustainability in the olive-oil production system. The traditional packaging considered for the study is a three layers packaging: polyethylene (PE), aluminum, polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Instead, the new solution considered is a three layers packaging made from two bio-based polymers: polylactic acid (PLA) treated with metallization and Bio-polyethylene (BIO PE). To calculate the environmental impact of each packaging, raw materials, instruments and relative energy used to create the films, and material disposal phase were considered. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), \u201cfrom cradle to grave\u201d was used to assess the environmental impact of studied packaging. The functional unit was defined in the single-use packaging (olive oil content equal to 10 ml). Respect to traditional packaging, the innovative one has obtained better performances in the human health impact categories (e.g. climate change - 44% CO2 eq). On the other hand, the fermentation process of sugar cane, even if is considered a biological process, showed higher impacts in the ecosystem quality impact categories (e.g. water resource depletion, freshwater ecotoxicity and land use). The final comparison between the two packaging shows that the improvement of environmental sustainability of the innovative packaging is not confirmed for all the impact categories used to assess the environmental impact. This work shows how the bio-based product does not always represent the better way in term of environmental sustainability, especially nowadays where recycling processes have become an important topic

Environmental advantages of visible and near infrared spectroscopy for the prediction of intact olive ripeness

Conventional ripeness analyses performed on olives require different analytical tools, chemicals, sample preparation and they are time consuming. The same analyses performed using an optical and non-destructive technology such as visible and near infrared (vis/NIR) spectroscopy allow prediction of ripeness parameters in a simple and quick way. The purpose of this work is to compare the environmental impact of conventional ripeness analyses and an optical approach performed on olive fruits. The conventional analyses identified as reference were: moisture, oil and phenols content. Life Cycle Assessment was applied to assess the environmental impact. The approach \u201cfrom cradle to grave\u201d considered all the inputs and outputs of each analysis, including machinery, reagents and energy necessary for analyses. Furthermore, for the optical analysis the activities required for the instrument calibration were also considered. Quantifying the environmental damage, the results showed clear advantages for optical analysis allowing vis/NIR spectroscopy to be defined as a green technology