Bibliometric Mapping of Research on Life Cycle Assessment of Olive Oil Supply Chain

Abstract

The olive oil supply chain and even its individual stages have been extensively investigated through life cycle assessment (LCA) in recent decades. Most practices of the olive oil supply chain have been associated with negative environmental effects, such as soil degradation, carbon dioxide emissions, air and ground pollution, and depletion of groundwater. The current work aimed to perform a bibliometric analysis, through a science mapping approach, coupled with a review on the life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of the olive oil sector, with relevance to the environmental impacts of agricultural and industrial practices of this food sector. A total of 110 documents published in 2008–2021 were analyzed and discussed. More than 78% of documents were released from 2015. The main Scopus categories relating to the topic analyzed were environmental sciences (25%), energy (18%), and engineering (17%). The most productive countries were Italy, Spain, and Greece. The cluster analysis identified three main research topics related to the “agricultural phase”, “oil extraction”, and “waste management and by-product valorization”. Most of the recent publications focused on the application of LCA to evaluate the environmental impact of innovative agricultural practices, sustainable control of parasites and weeds, wastes, and by-products valorization within a circular economy.

Sustainability Assessment of Different Extra Virgin Olive Oil Extraction Methods through a Life Cycle Thinking Approach: Challenges and Opportunities in the Elaio-Technical Sector

“…These results, therefore, related to 1 kg of oil, lead to average values of 1.13 kg CO 2 eq per kg of oil for the two-phases process and 2.27 kg CO 2 eq per kg of oil for the three-phases process, showing how the former type of extraction is more sustainable than the latter, both in absolute terms and per kilo of the produced oil. Different LCA studies applied to olive cultivation have been published, following a "from cradle to grave" or "from cradle to farmgate" approach [19,20], mainly highlighting the agricultural phase and thus the contribution of fertilizers, pesticides, and water management. However, there is a paucity of works focusing on the employment of two-phase and three-phase extraction during the olive milling process.…”

“…As far as manufacturing operations are concerned, they were analysed for waste generation and to a lesser extent fuel and energy consumption. In this sense, the extraction method itself showed a limited impact (energy and water consumption, emissions), if compared to other supply chain phases [19,20]. Nevertheless, as the extraction method dramatically affects the characteristics of the by-products and wastes, its contribution should not be neglected, especially when a gate-to-gate approach is considered.…”

A Review of Recent Progresses on Olive Oil Chemical Profiling, Extraction Technology, Shelf‐life, and Quality Control

“…Scopus and Web of Science from Elsevier are the most frequently used multidisciplinary databases to perform bibliometric analysis [127] . Within this study, the OO bibliographic records were retrieved on 20 January 2023, using the Scopus database.…”