Food Safety Magazine, October/November 2009

polypropylene packaging had the highest contribution to global warming potential. We have assumed the plastic packaging would be sent to municipal waste incineration after use, so this would generate carbon dioxide emissions. As the polypropylene packaging was heavier than the pouch used for the two HP products, the polypropylene packaging had a higher contribution. Transport—both goods transport and consumer transport— contributed significantly to this impact category.

Acknowledgement

This work has been part-funded by the Commission of the European Communities, Framework 6, Priority 5 ‘Food Quality and Safety’, Integrated Project NovelQ FP6-CT-2006-015710 and by the UK’s Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council.

Choice of Packaging Is
Important

The study results indicate that HP-processed product has environmental benefits compared to conventional, heat-treated product in terms of the decreased energy required for processing. However, the largest difference in environmental impact between the products is not linked to this energy decrease, but rather to the type of packaging that is used and to the composition of the products. The plastic pouch used for the HP salsa products is environmentally preferable, as it is so lightweight.

Furthermore, transport turned out to be a significant factor in terms of the total impact of each product, which is not the case for food products with animal origin that have a much higher impact from the farm stage. As the salsa products are made solely from vegetable raw materials (in our case, vegetables grown in open-air fields) and are sold in fairly small units, the choice of packaging and the logistics of the product are two very important parameters to optimize when aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the product.

In conclusion, the results show that using HP processing is not associated with any additional environmental impact compared with conventional heat treatment, so the freshness of the products can be improved without compromising the environmental profile. However, when developing novel products, the type of packaging is often an important parameter to consider to ensure environmentally sound products. ;

Jennifer Davis, Ph.D., is a researcher and consultant at SIK—the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her work primarily focuses on life cycle assessment (LCA) of food production, as well as LCA of novel technologies developed within food industry. Recent research interests involve analysis of the climate impact (carbon footprint) of fruits and vegetables.

Graham K. Moates is a research scientist in the Sustainability of the Food Chain Exploitation Platform at the Institute of Food Research (IFR), UK. He joined IFR in 1985 and has worked on a wide variety of projects to help improve our understanding of food ingredients. His research has involved studies into the use of super-

critical fluids, plant cell walls, the use of thermoplastic starch as biodegradable packaging, colloids and ultrasonic characterization. He is currently involved in two work packages within the EU-funded NovelQ project concerning life cycle assessment of food production systems and the utilization of food wastes.

Keith W. Waldron heads the “ Sustainability of the Food Chain Exploitation Platform” at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK. His research background is in plant cell wall (bio)chemistry with particular reference to food texture and quality. He runs a number of UK- and internationally funded research projects which focus on reducing waste in the agri-food chain. These range from improving the efficiency of processing through to the exploitation of biomass in non-food applications including biofuels.