Carbon footprint of a multi-ingredient seafood product from a business-to-business perspective

Greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production system of a wide range of fish products have been analysed in literature. However, the evaluation of complex multi-ingredient products of marine origin from a carbon footprint perspective has remained unexplored. Therefore, this article assessed the environmental profile of hake fish sticks extracted in Chile and processed at a seafood industry near Vigo (NW Spain) for distribution throughout the Spanish market. Despite a brief discussion on the distribution and consumption life cycle stages, result reporting adopted a business-to-business approach, focussing on raw material production and fish stick processing and packaging. In spite of the increased processing stages that a product of these characteristics requires, as well as the on land production systems for the agricultural products, fishery operations, mainly vessel fuelling and cooling agent leakage, were still responsible for over 50% of total emissions. Additionally, a series of improvement actions were identified in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the product. Finally, the fish sticks, when equated to other comparable substitutable production systems in terms of carbon footprint, energy use and energy return on investment, showed values in the lower range of previously analysed processes.

► Environmental evaluation of a complex multi-ingredient seafood product (fish sticks). ► Carbon footprint (CF) was the selected methodology for the assessment. ► Most GHG emissions were linked to fuelling and cooling agent leaks in the fishing stage. ► A set of improvement actions were identified to reduce the CF of the entire supply chain. ► The selected product was compared to substitutable products in terms of CF and EROI.