Frozen food company Nomad Foods is urging F&B regulators across Europe to develop a comprehensive end-to-end approach to the life cycle of products. This should include data in Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) that is currently not used – such as consumer food waste and primary data for all processing steps.

A peer reviewed study by PRé Sustainability, commissioned by Nomad Foods, showed that retail and consumer food waste – data that is normally not included in LCA assessments – has a “significant effect on products’ overall environmental impact, equating to an estimated 160 million metric tons of CO2 in Europe,” according to the study.

“This is one of the most elaborate frozen food LCA studies ever done, covering a wide range of frozen food products and their alternatives and approaching them all in a consistent methodological manner,” says Ellen Meijer, consultant for PRé Sustainability, authors of the study. 

“We are now in the unique position to draw conclusions about the carbon footprint of frozen food products compared to their non-frozen alternatives and generalize these conclusions across the frozen food category.” 

Of the 22 frozen products analyzed in the study, 19 had lower carbon footprints than its alternatives that used other preservation methods (Credits: Nomad Foods).Frozen food, frozen emissions
One of the most relevant conclusions drawn by the study is that of the 22 products assessed under the new scope, Nomad Food frozen products performed much better than its non-frozen counterparts, with 18 out of 22 of its products having lower carbon footprints. For the realization of the study, they analyzed the businesss most popular products.

Of the analyzed frozen products, three had 30% lower carbon footprints than their non-frozen alternatives, which used other preservation methods. Eight had 10% lower emissions,13 had similar emissions, and three had higher emissions that ranged between 10% and 15%. 

One of the analyzed food products is cream spinach, which, according to the novel LCA approach, has a carbon footprint of 2.5 KG of CO2 when it is fresh compared to 1.8 KG of CO2 when it’s frozen.

Call for industry to understand their part
Nomad Foods also urges companies to fully understand their products’ total emissions and provide accurate and complete information.

“Food production is a major contributor to climate change. Making better environmental choices about what we eat and how we reduce food waste is one way for businesses and consumers to lower their carbon impact,” highlights the business.

“It’s vital that we find ways to provide consumers with information that helps them make informed choices and provides confidence that sustainability claims are robust and evidence-based. To support this, we encourage the food industry, retailers and regulators to adopt a wider scope for LCAs as standard, taking the whole product life cycle into account,” remarks Stéfan Descheemaeker, Nomad Foods CEO.

Comprehensive improved LCA stages According to the new study, consumers have a considerable part of the carbon footprint (Credits: Nomad Foods).
Nomad Food suggests adding new stages in the LCA scopes, which are generally not included in studies. 

The usual steps analyzed include the ingredients, production, and transport to the factory. The processing, the factory activities, packaging and energy use. Including the packaging materials and their transportation. Followed by the distribution face and transport to the distribution center, to the retail hub and its storage there. And finally, all the retail storage and waste footprint: electricity, coolant, waste treatment and product losses.

The new study suggests adding the following stages:

- Consumer transport: From the retailer to the consumer.

- Consumer storage: Electricity use for storage by the consumer.

 - Consumer preparation: Energy use by the consumer to cook the food product, as well as any capital goods.

 - Consumer waste: Waste treatment of primary packaging and product losses. This includes all upstream processes required to compensate for the product losses at the consumer.