CASE STUDY 2: Sustainable design of meat products

In the framework of H2020 CIRC4Life project, Life Cycle Assessment, in the environmental and social ways, was one of the main tools used for the development of sustainable products. One interesting example is the environmental LCA influenced in the design of sustainable meat products.

The LCA was carried out for subsystems: feed production, pig housing, slaughtering, meat processing. Two scenarios: basic and improved were compared. In the basic scenario, the highest impacts are attributed to agricultural land occupation 29%, climate change 34%, natural land transformation 11% and fossil depletion 11%. Animal feed production is the most critical phase. Comparative analysis of the scenarios showed that there is a potential for beneficial trade-offs between different impact categories by changing the processes and materials for feed production. Some key factors for the sustainable design of the products which the LCA showed were:

• The most impactful are processes of production of agricultural raw materials use in the fodder production phase.
• It is crucial to pay attention to the origin of agricultural raw materials used for the production of feed. It is preferred to use locally produced materials whenever possible
• It is recommended o use by-products from agricultural production for animal feed production while ensuring the high quality of the feed.
• Pig farming causes emissions of gases to the environment related to stable and manure management and for this reason, it is recommended to use air protection solutions and manages them efficiently.

Finally, with all these recommendations, were translated in a more sustainable meat products, and are applicable to the entire meat