Dairy Wastage Footprint Analysis: A Farm-to-Fork Life Cycle Approach Across Dairy Supply Chain.

Abstract

Decarbonizing practices in the food industry act as an obstacle in achieving sustainability despite climate change concerns. Roughly one-third of all food produced globally is wasted across the value chain generating 1.6 billion tons of food waste. Regardless of efforts to decrease carbon emissions from the agri-food system, the agricultural sector generates approximately 4.4 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually from natural sources for producing food that is ultimately lost along the food supply chain. Although the dairy sector is a primary source of milk, cheese, yogurt, and cream, livestock's supply chain, including their wastes, releases a considerable greenhouse gas such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. The presented paper has proven that food waste in mass does not necessarily indicate the corresponding food waste-related emissions. Animal-containing products have comparatively low waste in terms of mass. However, the polluting emissions released from the dairy sector are relatively high regarding global warming potential (Kg C02 eq) and carbon footprint. The study results showed that milk dominates the majority of carbon intensity accounted for 50%, followed by cheese 24%, yogurt 20%, and cream 7%. The consumption stage responsible for 50% of dairy food waste in terms of mass. In contrast, the primary production stage accounts for the majority of the dairy sector's carbon intensity. The paper provides recommendations on research direction for mitigating food waste and supports the transitions towards a sustainable food system.