Production, packaging and preservation of semi-finished apricots: AÂ comparative Life Cycle Assessment study

•Life Cycle Assessment of semi-finished apricots production and preservation.•Comparison among deep-freezing, drying assisted by infrared radiation and ohmic aseptic treatments.•Processing and packaging emissions were taken into account.•Analysis of potential improvements obtainable modifying source of energy and packaging weight.•Global savings of 22, 14 and 16% in the optimized frozen, dried and aseptic apricots scenarios.

Some fruits have a reduced harvesting period or a high degree of perishability, which results in a very short shelf life. Therefore, in order to extend the shelf life of foodstuffs, maintaining low the level at which microbial spoilage and deterioration reactions can occur, fresh fruits have to be treated, obtaining semi-finished products. Those products are commonly used as starting materials by some food industries, like jams', gelatines' and marmalades' ones, due to the extension of their productions throughout the whole year. Among the possible techniques, the Southern Italy industry under study uses three different techniques to produce, package and preserve semi-finished fruits: one based on individually quick freezing, one on low-pressure superheated steam drying with far-infrared radiation, and one on an ohmic aseptic treatment.In the last years, food industries have focused their attention not only towards high quality products but also towards environmental friendly productions. Therefore, the aim of this work is to use a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to compare the environmental emissions of the three different production and preservation techniques used by the industry under study. The environmental impacts were evaluated using a detailed LCA analysis, normalizing all the consumptions and emissions to the functional unit (one apricots' kg on dry basis). Data were analysed using SimaPro 8.0.5 software, whereas the Ecoinvent database and information collected from the chosen industrial site were used for the life cycle inventory, according to the reference standard for LCA (i.e., ISO 14040-14044).