Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Edible Vegetable Frying Oils

Abstract

HighlightsCottonseed oil (CSO), a cotton byproduct, has advantages for climate change compared to other seed oils.Results show that the cultivation phase is the main impact driver for all vegetable oils analyzed in this study.Refined CSO (U.S.) can reduce climate change impacts by up to 83% as compared to the other oils analyzed.Abstract. Edible vegetable oils are a major source of climate change impacts and an environmental concern in the processed food industry. This study consists of a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of refined U.S. cottonseed oil (CSO), global soybean oil, U.S. canola oil, and palm oil sourced from Indonesia and Malaysia. Considering the oils equivalent for deep frying, they are compared on a 1 kg of oil basis. Analysis includes sensitivity analyses for modeling allocation choices and oil mixes as well as uncertainty analysis. Results show that the cultivation phase is the main impact driver for all vegetable oils analyzed, which favors CSO (U.S.) because it is a co-product. Refined CSO (U.S.) can reduce climate change impacts by up to 83%. Overall, refined CSO (U.S.) was a top performer in six of the eight impact categories evaluated. When ranking the oils, refined CSO (U.S.) was the preferred choice. Despite being the preferred choice, there are tradeoffs with CSO, such as water scarcity. In the context of global-scale commercial frying applications, e.g., McDonald’s daily French fry production of 9 million tons per day, switching the frying oil to refined CSO (U.S.) represents potential savings of 1,130 to 2,188 tons of CO2-eq d-1. For fast-food chains seeking to reduce their climate change impacts, refined CSO (U.S.) may be useful in frying applications. However, opportunities may exist for improvement in water use efficiency in the cultivation phase, which reinforces the need for continuous improvements in agriculture. Keywords: Comparative life cycle assessment, Canola oil, Cottonseed oil, Cotton sustainability, Fast-food industry, LCA, Palm oil, Soybean oil, Vegetable frying oils.