Environmental impacts of German food consumption and food losses

Eberle, Ulrike; Fels, Jacob

doi:10.1007/s11367-015-0983-7

Cited by 57 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…For example, Muñoz et al (2010) assessed annual Spanish food consumption based on LCA studies available in the literature on food proxies for Spanish food purchased by households, catering, restaurants, and institutions. More recently, Eberle and Fels (2016) assessed the environmental burden of food consumption and food losses in Germany by considering the average German food basket and by using 23 food proxies as representatives of eight food categories (e.g. apples, oranges, and bananas were identified as a representative of the product group 'fruits').…”

Section: Description Of the Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…apples, oranges, and bananas were identified as a representative of the product group 'fruits'). Eberle and Fels (2016) selected some proxies for their study based on their share of the product group and on data availability. Furthermore, in Notarnicola et al (2017), a basket of food products was identified as a representative of average European food and beverage consumption, in order to assess the environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe.…”

Section: Description Of the Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling, assessing, and ranking public procurement options for a climate-friendly catering service

Cerutti

Ardente

Contu³

et al. 2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Several scientific papers and technical reports have discussed the role of green public procurement in the food sector. Different strategies for the restoration sector have been identified. However, there is not yet a common understanding of which policies could be the most efficient in reducing the global warming potential of the public restoration service. This paper assesses a set of procurement policies, ranking them according to their potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of public catering. Methods Eleven relevant green public procurement policies were identified from the literature. These are discussed in the context of a case study of the school catering service in the city of Turin (Italy). Initially, a life cycle approach is applied to a baseline scenario of the collective restoration system of the city, to quantify the quantity of greenhouse gases produced by the entire catering service (including all stages from the production of food to the management of waste from kitchens and canteens). Afterwards, the 11 policies were applied to the baseline scenario so that the potential improvement achieved by each policy could be quantified. Results and discussion The baseline scenario resulted in 1.67 kgCO 2 eq per average meal. The production of food dominates the global warming potential of the full service, being responsible for about 78% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Among the selected policies, a change in diet was the most effective (leading to a 32% reduction of the CO 2 eq emissions), followed by the adoption of improved food production practices (11% reduction) and the purchasing of certified green electricity (6% reduction). Conclusions The proposed method allows the assessment of procurement policies in the catering service by applying a simplified life cycle approach that considers all the stages of the process. Public authorities and other stakeholders could benefit from basing their decisions upon scientific evidence and avoiding the prioritisation of policies based on personal opinions or weak evidence. Uncertainties and areas for improvement in the method have been also identified for future investigation.

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Section: Description Of the Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Description Of the Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling, assessing, and ranking public procurement options for a climate-friendly catering service

Cerutti

Ardente

Contu³

et al. 2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, results are presented for fewer impact categories and these most commonly include global warming potential, land use and energy use, or the analysis simply does not sufficiently take account of specific production conditions in different countries, for example see the work by Saxe, Larsen and Mogensen [72]. The same can be said for studies assessing the environmental impact of wastage produced on a large scale (for example in the retail sector or at a national scale as in Scholz, Eriksson and Strid [139] and Eberle and Fels [140]), which requires a considerable amount of information and therefore simplifications have been made.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Food Security Challenges within an Energy/Water/Food Nexus (EWFN) Approach

2016

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Abstract:The challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2050, in a context of constrained resources and growing environmental pressures posed by current food production methods on one side, and changing lifestyles and consequent shifts in dietary patterns on the other, exacerbated by the effects of climate change, has been defined as one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. The first step to achieve food security is to find a balance between the growing demand for food, and the limited production capacity. In order to do this three main pathways have been identified: employing sustainable production methods in agriculture, changing diets, and reducing waste in all stages of the food chain. The application of an energy, water and food nexus (EWFN) approach, which takes into account the interactions and connections between these three resources, and the synergies and trade-offs that arise from the way they are managed, is a prerequisite for the correct application of these pathways. This work discusses how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) might be applicable for creating the evidence-base to foster such desired shifts in food production and consumption patterns.

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“…LUR values <1.0 show animal production systems contributing to global food security, as they allow an increase in the overall protein production. Eberle and Fels (2015) analyzed the environmental impacts of German food consumption and food losses. The losses made up between 11 and 17 % of the environmental impacts of inhouse food consumption; for out-of-home food consumption they were even more important with 28 to 33 % losses, depending on the impact category.…”

Section: Methodology Data and Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of food consumption and nutrition: where are we and what is next?

Nemecek

Jungbluth

Canals³

et al. 2016

Int J Life Cycle Assess

157

106

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Purpose This article introduces the special issue "LCA of nutrition and food consumption" and 14 papers selected from the Ninth LCA Food Conference in San Francisco in October 2014. Literature overview The scientific literature in the field of food LCA has increased more than ten times during the last 15 years. Nutrition has a high contribution to the total environmental impacts of consumption. Agricultural production often dominates the impacts, but its importance depends on the type of product, its production mode, transport, and processing. Local or domestic products reduce transports, but this advantage can be lost if the impacts of the raw material production are substantially increased. Diets containing less meat tend to be more environmentally friendly. Several studies concluded that respecting the dietary recommendations for a healthy diet would reduce the overall environmental impacts in the developed countries, although this is not a universal conclusion. Contribution of this special issueEight papers analyze the environmental impacts of catering and in-house food consumption and impacts on sectoral and national levels; four papers presents tools and methods to better assess the impacts of nutrition and to implement the results in practical decisionmaking. Finally, two contributions analyze the impacts of food waste and reduction options. Communication of the environmental impact assessment results to stakeholders including policy-makers and consumers needs additional efforts. Research needs and outlook (i) Development of holistic approaches for the assessment of sustainable food systems, (ii) assessment of land use related impacts and inclusion of ecosystem services, (iii) exploration of LCA results for policy support and decision-making, (iv) investigation of food consumption patterns in developing and emerging countries, and (v) harmonization of databases.

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Environmental impacts of German food consumption and food losses

Cited by 57 publications

References 3 publications

Modelling, assessing, and ranking public procurement options for a climate-friendly catering service

Modelling, assessing, and ranking public procurement options for a climate-friendly catering service

Overcoming Food Security Challenges within an Energy/Water/Food Nexus (EWFN) Approach

Environmental impacts of food consumption and nutrition: where are we and what is next?

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