Revisiting the Life Cycle Assessment of mussels from a sectorial perspective

Iribarren, Diego; Moreira, Marı́a Teresa

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.10.009

Cited by 68 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The importance of packaging production in the life cycle of food varies between products: Jungbluth et al (2000) found this aspect of minor importance for meat and vegetables, but it is very important for other products like beverages (Gleick and Cooley 2009;. Packaging disposal, on the other hand, usually has a very low contribution in food studies, regardless of the type of product (Iribarren et al 2010;Humbert et al 2009;Zufia and Arana 2008). Data for the cooking process, namely the share of cooking modes and the share of electric/gas cooking appliances, are very uncertain in this case study, but no alternative data were found.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Published studies include beef, pork and ostrich (Núñez et al 2005), fresh and canned tuna (Hospido and Tyedmers 2005;Hospido et al 2006); mussels (Iribarren et al 2010); milk (Hospido et al 2003), ready meals (Zufia and Arana 2008);wheat, peas and sunflower (Nemecek et al 2007); olive oil (Molero 2006);tomatoes (Williams et al 2008;Antón et al 2005); strawberries (Williams et al (2008); lettuce (Hospido et al 2009); fresh and frozen broccoli and beans ; oranges (Sanjuán et al 2005); wine (Aranda et al 2005;Gazulla et al 2010); beer ; coffee roasting (Humbert et al 2009); and mineral water . Nevertheless, these studies did not cover all the required products; thus, data from production in other European countries were used (Table 2).…”

Section: Food Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life cycle assessment of the average Spanish diet including human excretion

Muñoz

Canals

Fernández‐Alba

2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Background, aim and scope The aim of this work is to find out to what extent human excretion is relevant in the context of a Spaniard's overall food intake. A case study dealing with the average Spanish diet is carried out, including the whole life cycle of food: agricultural and animal production, industrial processing, distribution and retail, home storage and cooking, solid waste management and human excretion.Methods An extensive literature review was carried out to obtain life cycle assessment (LCA) data for Spanish food products. Also, the Danish LCA Food database and other European literature sources were used, along with ecoinvent background data. Human excretion and wastewater treatment were accounted for with a specific model recently developed, which required calculating the average nutritional composition of the Spanish diet. Concerning life cycle impact assessment, only three impact categories, namely global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), were assessed, along with primary energy use (PEU) as environmental indicator.Results Food production clearly appears as the main hotspot in the Spanish diet. Human excretion, along with further wastewater treatment, is not a negligible process in EP and GWP, where it is the second most important source of emissions, with 17% of the overall emissions. However, if biogenic CO 2 emissions are not taken into account, the contribution of human excretion to GWP becomes very small (3%). The contributions to AP (2%) and PEU (3%) are also very small. Discussion The main limitation of this study is the lack of representative data to cover food production in Spain. Nevertheless, our total estimates for GWP and PEU per person per year are in accordance with previous studies, as well as the identification of animal food as a main source of environmental impacts. These studies achieve similar results without including human excretion, but concerning EP, there are no previous studies focusing on this impact category at the diet level. Conclusions Food production is the most important life cycle stage in the Spanish diet, especially meat and dairy products. Nevertheless, human excretion as a life cycle stage has been found to be important in EP due to the emissions of nutrients in treated sewage. Recommendations and perspectivesThese results show that excretion should not be overlooked in LCA studies dealing with diet shifts and studies aimed at identifying the life cycle hotspots of food products.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Food Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of the average Spanish diet including human excretion

Muñoz

Canals

Fernández‐Alba

2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…For different bases of comparison between the cultivation options, five functional units were considered including mass (a ton of commercial cauliflower), which is the most usual functional unit for food production LCA (Antón et al 2005;Hayashi et al 2006;Williams et al 2006;Mourad et al 2007;Reap et al 2008;Schau and Fet 2008;Blengini and Busto 2009;Martínez-Blanco et al 2009;Iribarren et al 2010). The four additional bases dealt with the potential units of commercialization (including mass and fruit), the dry matter and the nutritional content of commercial cauliflower (considering the content of total sinapic acid derivatives and total phenols).…”

Section: Functional Unitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing nutritional value and yield as functional units in the environmental assessment of horticultural production with organic or mineral fertilization

Martínez-Blanco

Antón

Rieradevall

et al. 2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Background, aim, and scope We report the environmental assessment of the cultivation cycle of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis), chosen due to its high levels of natural bioactive compounds, using different fertilization practices. The functional units used during the impact assessment were linked with the quantity produced, considering different units of commercialization, or with the cauliflower quality, considering its antioxidant compounds content. Although nutrient content has been described and used as a possible functional unit, using antioxidant compounds as a functional unit has not previously been published. Method Three cultivation options with similar dosages of total nitrogen were considered: using mineral fertilizers (M) alone or mineral fertilizers plus compost, with a high (C H ) or a low (C L ) dosage. During the cultivation period, the soil characteristics and nitrogen and moisture content of the fruit were monitored, and the yield and the fruit size were analyzed. In addition, the glucosinolates and the phenolic compounds (sinapic acid, phenols, and flavonoids) content were assessed for the three options. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to determine the environmental impacts of the whole cauliflower production cycle, including production of mineral and organic fertilizers, fertilizers transport, and crop stage. Results and discussion Commercial yields were higher for cultivation options with M and C L than for option C H , while higher levels of bioactive compounds were detected in the latter. For C H and C L , eutrophication, global warming and ozone layer depletion potentials were generally lower and photochemical oxidation potential was always higher than for the M option, regardless of the functional unit. Regarding functional units involving production (yield, fruit and dry matter harvest), there were higher impacts with the C H cultivation option than with M for abiotic depletion, acidification, photochemical oxidation, and cumulative energy demand. When the differences in bioactive compounds content (total sinapic acid derivatives and total phenols) were sufficiently high, this was reversed, with C H having lower impacts for all the environmental categories apart from photochemical oxidation and abiotic depletion. Conclusions and perspectives The differences in the magnitude of individual environmental impacts between culti-

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“…A more complete view on the LCA methodology related to the culture of mussels is given in the study of Iribarren et al (2010b). The system boundaries include the following activities: seed collection; pre-fattening the seed; rope thinning; harvesting, selection and previous packaging; construction, operation and maintenance of the raft; construction, operation and maintenance of the auxiliary cultivation boats.…”

Section: Musselsmentioning

confidence: 99%