Food waste and eco-design: the synergy between food and packaging LCA

A sustainable food system can be reached only via the cooperation of all the actors of the supply chain, from the cultivation sector, through production and transformation sector until the use and consumption phase, considering also the waste management system of the food and food packaging product discarded. To achieve a sustainable food system, it is essential to reduce as much as possible the food waste and food losses that affect the food system every year with a loss of one third of its production, consequently failing to feed the entire world population in the same way. To fight food loss and food waste and avoid unwanted effects it is necessary to use recognized and validated tools. One of these is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a scientific method that makes it possible to assess environmental impacts through a rigid methodology and which, if used in the right way, represents a strategic tool for optimizing sustainability in the food supply chain. Using LCA as a tool for a sustainable food system, it is possible to actively interact with the supply chain. To do this, however, it is necessary to rethink the model in a wider way starting from the food product, considering the packaging and not neglecting the end-of-life scenario. Results shows how considering only the packaging life cycle, the best environmental performance (considering only Global warming potential impact category) is given by the overwrap. The results are completely inverted if in the analysis is considered potential food waste effects on the environment. The packaging that had best performance, due to the reduced shelf-life and the higher potential food waste, now is the one with the worst environmental profile.