Purpose The goal of the study was to compare the environmental impact of butter and margarine. Altogether, seven products were studied in three European markets: UK, Germany and France. Methods The approach used for the analysis is descriptive (attributional) LCA. The SimaPro software PRé 2007 was used to perform the calculations. Data for the production chain of the margarine products (production of raw materials, processing, packaging and logistics) were compiled from Unilever manufacturing sites, suppliers and from literature. The edible oil data inventories have been compared with those in proprietary databases (ecoinvent and SIK food database) and they show a high degree of similarity. For the butter products, data on milk production and butter processing were taken from various published studies for the countries of interest. Sensitivity analyses were conducted for a number of parameters (functional unit, allocation method, impact of using different oil, milk and dairy data, impact of estimating GHG emissions from land use change for certain oils) in order to evaluate their influence on the comparison between margarine and butter. The sensitivity analyses demonstrate that the initial results and conclusions are robust. ResultsThe results show that margarine has significantly lower environmental impact (less than half) compared to butter for three impact categories global warming potential, eutrophication potential and acidification potential. For primary energy demand, the margarines have a lower impact than butter, but the difference is not as significant. Margarines use approximately half of the land required used for producing the butter products. For POCP, the impact is higher for the margarines due to the use of hexane in the oil extraction (no similar process occurs for butter). Conclusions The margarine products analysed here are more environmentally favourable than the butter products. In all three markets (UK, DE and FR) the margarine products are significantly better than the butter products for the categories global warming potential, eutrophication potential and acidification potential. These findings are also valid when comparing margarines and butters between the markets; for this reason they are likely to be of general relevance for other Western European countries where similar margarine and butter production systems are found.
Further efforts to ameliorate care and handling of peripheral intravenous cannulae are needed. This can be done by means of increasing nurses' knowledge and recurrent quality reviews. Well-informed patients can also be more involved in the care than is common today.
In order to study the biochemical changes in fish muscle during ice storage and freezing-thawing processes, the activities of certain marker enzymes in the cell interstitial fluid from muscle tissue of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were measured. The enzymes analysed were: lysosomal alpha-glucosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.20), beta-N-glucosaminidase (E.C. 3.2.1.30) and acid phosphatase (E.C. 3.1.3.2). The activity in centrifuged tissue fluid (CTF) was compared with the activity in total homogenate. When ice storage was varied between 3 and 14 days, it did not affect enzyme leakage into the CTF significantly. However, there was a distinct difference between fresh fish and fish iced even for only 1 day, which gave increased leakage of marker enzymes. When the ice-stored samples were subject to a freezing-thawing cycle they showed a marked increase in enzyme activity in the press juice. When the freezing process was varied so as to achieve different freezing rates, the slowest freezing rate caused the highest enzyme leakage.
Rainbow trout were subjected to four thawing treatments after being stored at -18°C and -40°C for 0, 3, 7, 13 and 18 mo. Membrane integrity was estimated as the volume of centrifuged tissue fluid (CTF) and by lysosomal B-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) activity in CTF. Slow thawing, in air at 5°C resulted in higher NAG activity in CTF and a larger volume of CTF than fast thawing, at 25°C in water, independent of storage time. After 3 or more months storage, a higher NAG activity in CTF and a larger volume of CTF were found in all -18°C stored samples compared to that at -40°C. Sensory evaluation confirmed differences between trout stored at -18°C and at -40°C for 18 mo.
Sensory and biochemical analyses were done on farmed rainbow trout to estimate quality changes caused by four different freeze handling processes. Trout were frozen as a block (I) and individual (11) drawn fish, and as a block (HI) and individual (1V)fillets. Refreezing was done, except for group IV, after filleting group I and II and separating group III into individual fillets. A 9-month storage period followed (-30C). Enzyme activity of a-glucosidase (AG) and 0-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) was measured in centrifuged tissue fluid (CTF). A descriptive sensoiy test was done after the second thawing and a ranking-order test after frozen storage. Refreezing resulted in significant increases @ < 0.05) of both enzyme activities in all groups. After storage the activity of NAG was significantly higher @ < 0.05) in all groups and a difference @ < 0.05) between group I and II was also seen. In the descriptive sensory evaluation, only two sensory attributes of group IV were differentiated @ < 0.05, p < 0.01) from the other groups, After storage group II was the preferred group @ < 0.05).
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