Optimizing the Environmental Profile of Fresh-Cut Produce: Life Cycle Assessment of Novel Decontamination and Sanitation Techniques

Abstract

Fresh-cut vegetables, namely those that undergo processes such as washing, sorting, or chopping while keeping their fresh state, constitute an important market element nowadays. Among those operations, the washing step becomes really important due both to the extensive use of water resources and to the utilization of controversial water sanitizing agents, such as chlorine. To ideally eliminate those chlorinated compounds while decreasing water consumption, four novel filtrating technologies (pulsed corona discharge combined with nanofiltration, NF-PCD; classical ultrafiltration, UF; nanofiltration membranes integrating silver nanoparticles, NF-AgNP; and microfiltration with cellulose acetate membranes containing chitin nanocrystals, ChCA) have been proposed to eliminate any contaminating agent in recirculated water. Here, we performed a life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental effects of introducing these new solutions and to compare those impacts with the burden derived from the current strategy. The novel technologies showed a decreased environmental burden, mainly due to the enhanced water recirculation and the subsequent decrease in energy consumption for pumping and cooling the water stream. The environmental gain would be maintained even if a certain amount of chlorine was still needed. This analysis could serve as an aid to decision-making while evaluating the introduction of new sanitizing techniques.

Sustainability Analysis of Active Packaging for the Fresh Cut Vegetable Industry by Means of Attributional & Consequential Life Cycle Assessment

“…When considering the whole vegetable product life cycle, packages play a minor role in the environmental profile. This issue had been previously described [17,38]. The minor role of packages production within the FC life cycle validates the simplifications assumed when modeling the ZnO nanoparticle production.…”

“…When considering the whole vegetable product life cycle, packages play a minor role in the environmental profile. This issue had been previously described [17,38]. along the whole supply chain.…”

“…This item considers the emissions and intakes that are needed to produce the vegetable, as well as its transportation to the manufacturing plant. The inventory for the produce processing taking place there, namely its sanitation, was retrieved from the author s previous research [38]. These inventory items were common to the three scenarios.…”

“…Following the agricultural production, packaging manufacturing also entails a significant load. The rest of the impacts are minor, including the package end-of-life (EOL) processes and the sanitation step, whose major concern has been claimed to be the energy consumption of the process [38]. endpoint level.…”

Sustainable Agriculture Systems in Vegetable Production Using Chitin and Chitosan as Plant Biostimulants

“…The main application methods of chitin on plants consist of foliar spraying and direct soil application, while it may be also applied on coating horticultural products to increase their shelf life after processing [169][170][171]. When foliar spraying is applied, the positive effects of chitin are associated with its direct act as a physical barrier against pathogen infections or with indirect activities that induce the plant immune system as signaling molecules for defense pathways [167,172,173].…”