O Processamento de leite envasado sob a ótica da avaliação do ciclo de vida

Abstract

International organizations are worried about climate change. Climate change is a result of a rather non-sustainable model of development, configured by excessive use of natural resources and deterioration of the environment. The model of development is worrying because food demand will increase up to 70% by 2050. This is closely related to topics regarding land use change. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate the possible environmental impacts of milk industrialization (type C milk. Analysis was developed using Life Cycle Assessment, in order to calculate the potential environmental impacts such as Global Warming Potential, Acidification and Eutrophication. The data collection and the inventory were developed in a dairy factory located in the county of Dourados, MS. The system boundary encompassed the inflow and outflow of raw milk at the factory gate until the stage of packaging. The lines of processing and quantification of inputs and outputs under study were based on dairy production records. The functional unit adopted was 1 kg of packed milk corrected for fat content and protein (FPCM). For the environmental impact analysis, the RECIPE Midpoint version 1.12 hierarchical model was used. Simapro software version 8.2.3 was used to calculate the emissions following recommendations and guidelines from ISO14040 e 14044. In milk packaging the main hotspots were the generation of electricity and the production of packages. In the processing stage, the lowest impact in the Global Warming Potential category was obtained in relation to thermal energy.