The carbon footprint of rye bread production in Sweden : a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the Fazer product Rågkusar

Abstract: The future will require sustainable food systems; systems that meets the present and the future with consideration of economic and social development, as well as environmental protection. In the current food system, two key drivers towards environmental pressure are agriculture and food consumption. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful method for assessing the environmental impact of food products. In current study, the rye bread Rågkusar by Fazer is assessed by conducting an LCA. The aims for the study have been to find the carbon footprint of Rågkusar, its climate hotspots and to find improvement possibilities throughout the life cycles. By mapping out the product system and assessing Rågkusar in the scope of from cradle to retail, the carbon footprint found was 0.37 kg CO2e per kg bread. The main climate hotspot found were the ingredients of the bread. By performing sensitivity analysis some potential improvements that would lower the climate impact of Rågkusar are presented, e.g., use more organic grains (due to lower use of fertilizers and pesticide), reduce their side streams, and change to electric trucks and biofuel trucks for transportations. The findings in current study were to some extent in line with previous research. However, the carbon footprint is rather low compared to what prior studies has observed. There are several possibilities for this which is further discussed in the study. The possible improvements for Rågkusar were presented to Fazer and this study presents the comments from Fazer about these improvements. LCAs are partly based on assumptions, which is seen as a limitation for this study, the use phase was excluded from the system boundaries, this is another limitation. Future studies are recommended to expand the system boundaries, or to analyse several environmental impacts related to the bread production.