ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF PIG MEAT PRODUCTS AND IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES. CASE STUDY FROM SPAIN

Abstract

The aim of the publication is to assess environmental performance of meat product and to point out the possibilities of improving the product quality in terms of its environmental impact. The research was performed within the CIRC4Life project on the example of ALIA company, Spain. Life Cycle Assessment method and literature study were used for this purpose. The LCA was carried out for subsystems: feed production, pig housing, slaughtering, meat processing. Two scenarios: basic and improved were compared using the ReCiPe method. 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%. The 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.