Sustainable energy opportunities in localised food production and transportation: A case study of bread in the UK

Abstract

Redistributed manufacturing (RDM) is of high economic and political interest and is associated with rapid technological, environmental, political, regulatory and social changes in the UK. RDM of food raises opportunities and questions around the local nexus of food, energy and water. Considering these together can provide opportunities for rationalising resource utilisation, production, and consumption while contributing to shared prosperity between business, society and natural ecosystems. This paper concentrates on the energy-food aspects of the nexus for RDM by focusing on the case study of bread manufacturing and transportation in the UK. A detailed analysis of the energy requirements and environmental impacts of centralised bread production and transportation compared with localised options for redistributed bread manufacturing is undertaken. This is achieved by building on existing literature and developing a series of bread-energy system configurations to model energy usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the large (centralised), medium and small scales. 2 Existing data demonstrate that there is a wide diversity across different manufacturing sites in the energy use and associated emissions per loaf of bread produced. The study highlights the opportunities for improvement in the sector if plant move towards the best available manufacturing technologies and practices, and this may be more practical for smaller scale operations. Two hypothetical bread production scenarios show that a greater share of the UK's bread being produced locally could result in a reduction in overall energy consumption and emissions.

Challenges and Opportunities in Wheat Flour, Pasta, Bread, and Bakery Product Production Chains: A Systematic Review of Innovations and Improvement Strategies to Increase Sustainability, Productivity, and Product Quality

“…A strategy able to reduce such emissions is represented by the organic farming approach, with the additional opportunity of using by-products as fertilizers [17]. These findings are supported by other authors for the bread and bakery product production chains [19,[57][58][59][60][61][62]. In particular, Chiriacò et al (2017) [57] highlighted a significant reduction of CO 2 eq emissions in the case of organic farming for bread and bakery product production chains, with a significant reduction of environmental pressures.…”

“…In this case, in order to obtain both a significant reduction of environmental impacts and the improvement of wheat quality, it is necessary to identify the minimum amount of fertilizers that guarantees suitable yields, flour and semolina quality, and suitable pasta, bread, and bakery product characteristics. Considering the subsequent production phases in pasta, bread, and bakery product manufacturing (i.e., dough kneading, bread baking, and pasta production), the introduction of new technologies, such as microwaves, infrared radiations, and pulsed electric fields, and the use of sustainable energy in food production and transportation, seems to be the most interesting and sustainable improvement strategies [17,59,61]. With respect to the high-quality pasta production process, the drying phase is the most critical in terms of energy consumption, environmental impacts, and expenditure, since Italian traditional high-quality pasta production is based on a low-temperature long-time (LTLT) drying process, which is recognized as a quality parameter by consumers [17].…”

“…With respect to the high-quality pasta production process, the drying phase is the most critical in terms of energy consumption, environmental impacts, and expenditure, since Italian traditional high-quality pasta production is based on a low-temperature long-time (LTLT) drying process, which is recognized as a quality parameter by consumers [17]. Particularly in this case, the introduction of new technologies and the use of sustainable energy sources in food production and transportation appear to be particularly needed [17,59,61].…”

Role of the Food Supply Chain Stakeholders in Achieving UN SDGs

“…A case study on transportation of bread in UK promotes walking/cycling associated with consumers who need to buy bread from local bakeries as one of the main sustainable strategies associated with sustainable cities (SDG 12) and climate change (SDG 13) [74]. The rationale is behind the fact that an average shopping travel distance is above 750 km/year/household, with two-thirds of travelling carried out using a car.…”

Can a shift to regional and organic diets reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system? A case study from Qatar

“…For instance, some high-quality studies assessing GHG emissions from fresh products applying LCA methodologies have been already published [11], but they lack on distinguishing between production systems, or do not consider downstream processes (i.e. transportation, refrigeration and packaging) that can be very relevant when assessing the FS at country level [26][27][28][29]. Addressing this research gap is especially relevant for those countries under highly specific pedoclimatic and/or socio-economic conditions, like Qatar, the focus of this study, where the extreme arid conditions-80 mm of annual precipitation and an evaporation rate of 2000 mm-have limited the agriculture to the production of some specific plant-based crops.…”