We support eco-design processes in the food industry with life cycle assessments. Here, we deal with the question of what information is needed for environmental product declarations, and other similar questions.
groscope and Quantis launched the World Food LCA Database (WFLDB) project at the beginning of 2012. The aim of the WFLDB is to develop a database that will support companies, environmental agencies and scientists in processes such as environmental product declaration and eco-design. The database is to contain inventories for the following areas:
- Agricultural commodities, e.g. fruit, vegetables, coffee, edible oils and meat
- Inputs for agricultural production such as feed mixtures, pesticides and fertilisers
- Data on food processing, e.g. on pasta production
- Food processing at home
- Storage and transport of foods.
The development of the database is supported by several leading companies in the food value chain, as well as by government authorities. Existing LCA studies, literature reviews, agricultural statistics, environmental reports of companies, technical reports on foods and farming, and data from the project partners as well as newly collected primary data are used to develop the new inventories. The ecoinvent database is consulted for background data. In addition, the compatibility of the WFLDB with ecoinvent is ensured.
