Abstract
Abstract
This paper aims to evaluate the global warming potential (GWP) associated with the production and consumption of chocolate ice cream considering parameter uncertainty. A further objective is to identify hotspots and opportunities for improvements. Two types of ice cream are considered - regular and premium - with the main difference being the fat, sugar, cocoa powder and egg content which are higher for the latter than the former. The study follows the ISO 14040/14044 guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA). The functional unit is defined as 1 kg of chocolate ice cream packaged in a plastic tub. The scope of the study is from ‘cradle-to-grave’, comprising production of raw materials, ice cream manufacturing, retail, consumption and end-of-life (EOL) waste management; transport across the whole life cycle is also considered. Data have been sourced from manufacturers, literature and LCA databases. The results show that the GWP of premium ice cream is 6% higher than of the regular version (6.9 and 6.5 kg CO2 eq./kg, respectively). The raw materials contribute the majority (74%) of the impact. The next contributing stage is manufacturing, adding 9%-10%, followed by the packaging and retail with around 7% each. For the ingredients, cocoa is the hotspot (2.7 kg CO2 eq./kg), followed by milk (2-2.1 kg CO2 eq./kg). For the former, this is due to cocoa cultivation and for the latter, due to agricultural and livestock practises. Energy consumption in manufacturing is also a relevant contributor to the total GWP manufacturing impacts (86%). Thus, producers should consider implementing better agricultural methods and more efficient manufacturing processes to reduce the GWP of ice cream. The results of the uncertainty analysis obtained by Monte Carlo simulation shown possible variations in the GWP due to the uncertainty are between 6.1 and 6.9 kg CO2 eq./kg for the regular and 6.4-7.2 kg CO2 eq./kg for the premium ice cream. Finally, the probability of the premium ice cream having higher GWP than the regular is estimated at 92%.
10th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food 2016
19th - 21st October 2016
Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Sustainable food chains, Uncertainties