Optimizing the Environmental Profile of Fresh-Cut Produce: Life Cycle Assessment of Novel Decontamination and Sanitation Techniques

Miguel Vigil, Maria Pedrosa Laza, Henar Moran-Palacios and Alvarez Cabal Jv
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Miguel Vigil: Área de Proyectos de Ingenieria, Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Calle Independencia 13, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
Maria Pedrosa Laza: Área de Proyectos de Ingenieria, Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Calle Independencia 13, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
Henar Moran-Palacios: Área de Proyectos de Ingenieria, Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Calle Independencia 13, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
Alvarez Cabal Jv: Área de Proyectos de Ingenieria, Departamento de Explotación y Prospección de Minas, Universidad de Oviedo, Calle Independencia 13, 33004 Oviedo, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Fresh-cut vegetables, namely those that undergo processes such as washing, sorting, or chopping while keeping their fresh state, constitute an important market element nowadays. Among those operations, the washing step becomes really important due both to the extensive use of water resources and to the utilization of controversial water sanitizing agents, such as chlorine. To ideally eliminate those chlorinated compounds while decreasing water consumption, four novel filtrating technologies (pulsed corona discharge combined with nanofiltration, NF-PCD; classical ultrafiltration, UF; nanofiltration membranes integrating silver nanoparticles, NF-AgNP; and microfiltration with cellulose acetate membranes containing chitin nanocrystals, ChCA) have been proposed to eliminate any contaminating agent in recirculated water. Here, we performed a life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the environmental effects of introducing these new solutions and to compare those impacts with the burden derived from the current strategy. The novel technologies showed a decreased environmental burden, mainly due to the enhanced water recirculation and the subsequent decrease in energy consumption for pumping and cooling the water stream. The environmental gain would be maintained even if a certain amount of chlorine was still needed. This analysis could serve as an aid to decision-making while evaluating the introduction of new sanitizing techniques.

Keywords: fresh-cut vegetables; life cycle assessment; LCA; chlorine; filtering membranes; water recirculation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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