Life cycle assessment for sustainable food systems: integrating nutritional and environmental assessment
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FAO ;
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Agri-food systems are major contributors to environmental degradation. At the same time obesity and diet related diseases is on the rise due to over consumption of ultra-processed food which is high in saturated fat, salt and sugar. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method provide insights into environmental impact of foods, meals, and diets from production to consumption. However, to date there is no agreed approach for integrating the assessment of nutritional value into the LCA methodology. Instead, a diverse range of approaches has emerged that provide different perspectives on nutritional value in the context of LCA of food systems. It can therefore be difficult to identify where trade-offs exist between different life cycle-based environmental impacts (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions and water use), and the contribution of different foods to human nutrition.
To address this challenge, FAO embarked on an action-research project in May 2021. The project brought together an international team of thirty LCA and nutrition researchers who developed a state-of-the-art review to improve the environmental and nutritional Life Cycle Assessment (nLCA) methodology. The group identified the key LCA methodology limitations that are impeding the ability of food system actors to capture and compare the environmental and nutritional impacts of food items. They developed best practice recommendations for an integrated nLCA to measure and compare these impacts, and defined future research needs.