Exploring the Viability of Fresh-Cut and Precooked Vegetables for a Sustainable Future

Convenience is the name of the game in the agri-food industry, and fresh-cut and precooked vegetables are two of the latest innovations. Before they are sold fresh, growers transform these products and package them in bags or modified atmospheres, requiring refrigeration during storage and distribution. It?s no wonder they have become the first choice for consumers looking for convenience, quality and ease of preparation. Many of the foods people enjoy today are produced through a variety of processes, including packaging and processing. But while you may enjoy these foods, it?s important to consider their impact on the environment. Scientists have recently conducted studies to examine how our consumption of processed and packaged foods affects the planet. For example, they found that the production of fresh-cut lettuce has the greatest environmental impact during the agricultural and wastewater management phases. Similarly, for pre-cooked products, the greatest environmental impact comes from the production of ingredients. It?s important to consider not only the environmental impact but also the economic and social impact of convenience foods when evaluating their sustainability. The use of both Environmental Life Cycle Costing (ELCC) and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) together can provide a balanced evaluation of these factors. This approach offers a promising path to finding solutions that promote sustainability and benefit all stakeholders involved. With this in mind, the Universidad Polit?cnica de Cartagena?conducted a study to check the environmental and economic sustainability of the fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetable industry. The goal was to identify the environmental impacts and economic costs associated with each stage of the production process, from upstream (including the agricultural stage and processing materials) to downstream (transportation and end-of-life management). To do this, the researchers established a functional unit of 1 kg of finished fresh-cut or precooked vegetables at the market gate. They also used a mass allocation approach to assign material and energy inputs and residual outputs shared between the two production lines and the common processing line. The factory studied produces both fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables, with specific packaging lines for each product. The blanching and heat treatment lines were used only for precooked vegetables, allowing a direct assignment. The researchers also considered the economic costs associated with expenses shared between these two products, such as financial costs, insurance, labor, and taxes. To determine the environmental savings associated with replacing animal feed corn with biowaste generated at the plant, they used a system expansion approach, taking into account the nutritional value of fresh weight as determined by the USDA in 2021. The results were interesting. According to the study, pre-cooked vegetables have a higher carbon footprint (0.86 kg CO2eq/kg) compared to their fresh-cut counterparts (0.72 kg CO2eq/kg). This is due to the extra processing and packaging steps required for pre-cooked products. The study also showed that agriculture is the main source of emissions for both types of products, with the upstream stage being the largest contributor to environmental impacts (60?82%). The core stage was the second largest contributor (9.1?39.6%), while the downstream stage was the smallest (less than 14.5%). Surprisingly, animal-based pre-cooked products were found to have a higher environmental impact than pre-cooked vegetables. Overall, the study concluded that fresh-cut vegetables have a lower environmental footprint than pre-cooked vegetables. The authors also described the environmental life cycle costing and eco-efficiency index of both types of vegetables. Pre-cooked vegetables were found to be more expensive to produce due to their resource-intensive nature (e.g., sauces, packaging, and electricity consumption). In both products, labor costs were found to be the highest contributor, followed by building and equipment acquisition and maintenance. Packaging waste management costs and the economic savings obtained from selling the building and equipment were negligible for both products. In fact, the upstream stage had the highest eco-efficiency index for all impact categories for both fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. This highlights the importance of focusing on sustainable agriculture practices to reduce the environmental footprint of vegetable production. Summary A study was conducted to test the environmental and economic sustainability of fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables through a cradle-to-market LCA, with results showing CFs of 0.72 kg CO2eq/kg and 0.86 kg CO2eq/kg, respectively. Fresh-cut vegetables had a lower environmental footprint than pre-cooked products in all impact categories studied. This is because pre-cooked vegetables need extra unit operations and more packaging materials. The most affected impact categories were the same for both vegetable products, with notable contributions from water use, climate change and fossil resource use. The upstream stage dominated the environmental impacts associated with fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables due to the production of ingredients (vegetables and sauces) and packaging materials. Production costs for fresh-cut vegetables were lower than for pre-cooked vegetables. The largest contributors to total costs were similar for both products. The eco-efficiency index showed that fresh-cut vegetables had lower environmental impacts per euro spent in most of the impact categories assessed. The upstream stage was identified as the least eco-efficient stage. Source: Laura Rasines, Serni Morera, Guillermo San Miguel, Francisco Art?s-Hern?ndez, Encarna Aguayo. Environmental and economic sustainability of fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Science of The Total Environment, Volume 872, 2023. Author:?Jorge Luis?Alonso G. (with ChatGPT)?Maximizing Agribusiness Profits with Expert Postharvest Storage Strategies | Horticultural Writing Specialist.?This article was written exclusively for the business platform Postharvest. Cover photo: Getty