An environmental evaluation of food supply chain using life cycle assessment: a case study on gluten free biscuit products

Abstract

This paper assesses the environmental profile of the biscuit supply chain for producing sustainable gluten-free biscuits. Three different biscuit products were considered. The assessment follows a cradle-to-grave approach applying the ISO standards in compliance with the Product Category Rules (PCR) defined within EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) for bakery products was followed. Analogous environmental profiles were demonstrated for the different products assessed: ingredients production was found as the main hotspot on all impact categories, with contributions ranging from 22.2% to 84.9%, followed by transportation. Initial hypotheses for ingredients origin and waste management practices were demonstrated to have a key influence on the environmental results: while higher packaging recycling rates and local ingredients usage led to improved environmental results (up to 5.5%), direct food waste disposal was responsible for slightly (below 1%) unfavourable performance relative to base case. Additionally, healthier ingredients (xylitol and fructose) were also proposed in order to evaluate their potential benefits from an environmental perspective. However, only the use of fructose was found as a suitable alternative sweetener for more sustainable production.