Environmental life cycle assessment of fruit and vegetable processing industry products

Abstract

Food processing is energy-intensive and often has unmeasured and mischaracterized environmental impacts (EI). However, sustainable food production is becoming more vital as food is a basic human necessity. Given that energy and environmental implications are significant concerns for policymakers, the analysis of the food supply chain has become crucial in this context. This study examines cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of tomato and sweet red pepper (SRP) products' EIs. Results demonstrated that transportation-diesel use, packaging materials, and fertilizer use affect greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, acidification, eutrophication, and other environmental effects. Diesel usage accounts for 65 % of SRP farming's global warming potential (GWP), followed by fertilizer at 17 %. Fresh SRP farming has a 0.0954 kg CO₂-eq/kg GWP. Roasted SRP from 1 ton of fresh SRP produces 2250 kg CO₂ eq. Tin can packaging reduced the Abiotic (fossil) depletion potential (AFDP) by 52.8 % in roasted SRP manufacture. Dried SRP manufacture relies significantly on fertilizer, and 25 kg kraft bulk packaging reduced AFDP, ozone layer depletion, GWP, and human toxicity potential (HTP) by 49.2 %, 46.7 %, 22.9 %, and 19.4 %, respectively. The greenest option is biodiesel, followed by precision farming over all scenarios. One metric ton of fresh tomatoes has 120 kg CO₂ eq GWP. GWP is most affected by glass packaging in tomato juice production, at 34 %. It provides 31 % to AFDP, 25 % to freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential, and 55 % to HTP.