Browsing by Author "Taipale, Sanna"

The objective of the literature review was to study the background of the greenhouse effect and map earlier studies of the greenhouse gas emissions of beef and other meat products. The objective of the literature review was also to study life cycle assessment used in previous studies to calculate the carbon footprint of food products, following the ISO 14040-standard. The aim of the experimental work was to calculate the carbon footprint of the beef processing chain in Finland from the farm gate to the consumer´s table. In addition the aim was to understand the importance of processing chain emissions compared to the whole beef production chain and different steps in the processing chain. The functional unit in the study was 1 kg of beef. The work was carried out by studying in detail one beef processing chain in Finland. Emissions were calculated based on real processing data from the collaborating company. The data was collected with an information form by visiting two production plants in the collaborating company and conducting further interviews. The carbon footprint of the beef processing chain was 1240 g CO2-ekv/kg meat. Most emissions were produced by refining (310 g CO2-ekv/kg meat), slaughtering (280 g CO2-ekv/kg meat) and transporting meat products to the consumer (210 g CO2-ekv/kg meat). The processing chain represents only 4 % of total beef production chain emissions as the emission from birth to the farm gate are, according to literature, over 30 000 g CO2-ekv/kg meat. In the future, the carbon footprint of the beef could be reduced mainly by developing the process from the birth to the farm gate. The results were very similar to previous research of the chicken processing chain in Finland (Katajajuuri et al. 2008). This was as expected because there were no significant differences in the processing chain. Previous studies of the beef processing chain were not available.