title: Food losses, shelf life extension and environmental impact of a packaged cheesecake: A life cycle assessment.
abstract: Packaging is associated with a high environmental impact. This is also the case in the food industry despite packaging being necessary for maintaining food quality, safety assurance and preventing food waste. The aim of the present study was to identify improvements in food packaging solutions able to minimize environmental externalities while maximizing the economic sustainability. To this end, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the environmental performance of new packaging solutions. The environmental impact of packaging and food losses and the balance between the two were examined in relation to a cheesecake that is normally packaged in low density polyethylene film and has a limited shelf life due to microbial growth. A shelf life extension was sought via application of the well-established modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) technique. Samples for MAP (N2/CO2: 70/30) were placed inside multilayer gas barrier trays, which were then wrapped with a multilayer gas and water barrier film (i.e. AerPack packaging); control batches were packaged in gas barrier recycled polyethylene terephthalate (XrPet) trays and wrapped with a XrPet film. Samples were then stored at 20°C and inspected at regular intervals for chemical-physical, microbiological and sensory parameters. Results show that the new packaging solution could considerably extend the shelf life of cheesecakes, thereby reducing food waste and decreasing the overall environmental impact. Moreover, the new packaging allows one to minimize transport costs and to generate economies of scale in manufacturing.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Italia 39/A, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele Mario
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Italia 39/A, 07100 Sassari, Italy; CRENoS. Electronic address: mmeleddu@uniss.it.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meleddu
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Italia 39/A, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piga
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003611:Dairy Products / Q000191:economics / Q000382:microbiology*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005516:Food Microbiology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D018857:Food Packaging / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D005519:Food Preservation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D063427:Food Quality; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates
keywords: Environmental impacts; Life cycle assessment; Modified atmosphere packaging; Shelf life