Environmental impact evaluation of legume-based burger and meat burger

The industrial development leads to a decrease of natural resources and an increase of environmental impacts. In this scenario, the protection of human well-being and ecosystem are essential to obtain sustainable products. The necessity to reduce environmental impact of food productions collides with the population increase. To increase the productivity and reduce the greenhouse gases emissions is the key to allow continuity to the industrial development respecting the environmental system. The “Legume Genetic Resources as a tool for the development of innovative and sustainable food Technological system” (LeGeReTe) project is focussed on the environmental impact of food products considering legume-based food products which does not only represent an alternative to the traditional food but can also mean more choice for the consumer. The object of the study is the comparison between the environmental impact of burger legume-based production chain and on the traditional meat burger production chain. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was applied to assess the environmental sustainability of the analysed food chains. “From cradle to grave” approach was used, where agricultural phase, industrial process and domestic preparation were considered. The functional unit considered is 1 burger (100 g of product). The results of the environmental impact analysis for both the legume-based burger and meat burger showed that, for most of the impact categories, the agricultural one is the most impacting. Analysing the two food chains, the industrial process of legume-based burger provides the higher environmental impact respect to the meat burger. Moreover, the impact assessment of meat burger production chain, for most of the impact categories, reaches a value of 3-4 times greater than legumes-based burger. Finally, considering nutritional aspects to compare impact values, 15 g of protein (protein content in a meat burger of 100 g) were taken into account as nutritional functional unit. To reach the same protein content for the meat burger, it’s necessary to considerer two legume-based burgers. Doubling the environmental damages of legume-based burger, the environmental impact related to meat burger remains higher.