TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental and economic implications of food safety interventions
T2 - Life cycle and operating cost assessment of antimicrobial systems in U.S. beef packing industry
AU - Li, Shaobin
AU - Kinser, Courtney
AU - Ziara, Rami M.M.
AU - Dvorak, Bruce
AU - Subbiah, Jeyamkondan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant No. 2012-68003-30155 from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Prevention, Detection and Control of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli (STEC) from Pre-Harvest Through Consumption of Beef Products Program – A4101. The authors gratefully acknowledge the Chinese Scholarship Council for supporting a partial scholarship to Shaobin Li for his Ph.D. studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We also thank our beef packing plant partners who provided their time and expertise which greatly assisted the research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/10/10
Y1 - 2018/10/10
N2 - Antimicrobial systems in the U.S. beef packing industry are key treatments to improve the microbiological safety of beef products. However, product loss due to discoloration and use of chemicals, energy, and water have environmental and cost implications. This study compared environmental life cycle impacts and relative operating costs among three scenarios of antimicrobial systems currently applied in the commercial U.S. beef packing industry. Key differences between the three scenarios are the dominant use of antimicrobial chemicals, steam, and hot water pasteurization. Findings reveal that antimicrobial systems featured with chemicals result in greater human toxicity, ecotoxicity, and eutrophication impacts while antimicrobial systems featured with steam or hot water pasteurization lead to higher global warming and energy depletion. Contributions within each antimicrobial system were evaluated by: 1) seven components and 2) four intervention steps. Results show that antimicrobial chemical, wastewater treatment, and natural gas use are the three leading contributors across all environmental impacts. Evaluating environmental impact contributions of intervention steps helps target reduction goals in primary intervention steps and reveals potential opportunities for further impact reductions. A relative operating cost analysis of each scenario found revenue loss from discolored products in antimicrobial systems applying thermal pasteurization is the most significant contributor, resulting in higher operating costs than that of antimicrobial system featured with chemicals. This study provides a systematic assessment regarding environmental and cost impacts of three scenarios of antimicrobial systems. Also it can help guide process optimization, and provide a baseline for comparison with future new antimicrobial systems.
AB - Antimicrobial systems in the U.S. beef packing industry are key treatments to improve the microbiological safety of beef products. However, product loss due to discoloration and use of chemicals, energy, and water have environmental and cost implications. This study compared environmental life cycle impacts and relative operating costs among three scenarios of antimicrobial systems currently applied in the commercial U.S. beef packing industry. Key differences between the three scenarios are the dominant use of antimicrobial chemicals, steam, and hot water pasteurization. Findings reveal that antimicrobial systems featured with chemicals result in greater human toxicity, ecotoxicity, and eutrophication impacts while antimicrobial systems featured with steam or hot water pasteurization lead to higher global warming and energy depletion. Contributions within each antimicrobial system were evaluated by: 1) seven components and 2) four intervention steps. Results show that antimicrobial chemical, wastewater treatment, and natural gas use are the three leading contributors across all environmental impacts. Evaluating environmental impact contributions of intervention steps helps target reduction goals in primary intervention steps and reveals potential opportunities for further impact reductions. A relative operating cost analysis of each scenario found revenue loss from discolored products in antimicrobial systems applying thermal pasteurization is the most significant contributor, resulting in higher operating costs than that of antimicrobial system featured with chemicals. This study provides a systematic assessment regarding environmental and cost impacts of three scenarios of antimicrobial systems. Also it can help guide process optimization, and provide a baseline for comparison with future new antimicrobial systems.
KW - Antimicrobial interventions
KW - Beef packing industry
KW - Cost analysis
KW - Environmental life cycle assessment
KW - Food safety
KW - Product loss
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.020
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049726800
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 198
SP - 541
EP - 550
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -