Evaluation of the living cycle of the mozzarella cheese of a dairy in the northern region of Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Filho, Geraldo Francisco de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Bitencourt, Emanoelen Bitencourt e, Ferreira, Eduarda Costa, Oliveira, Vanessa Silva, Loureiro, Glauber Epifânio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Produção Online
• Texto Completo: https://www.producaoonline.org.br/rpo/article/view/3614
• topic: Evaluation of Life Cycle. Environmental impacts. Gate-to-gate. SimaPro. Cheese.; Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida. Impactos Ambientais. Gate-to-gate. SimaPro. Queijo.

This work used the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique to assess the environmental impacts of the production of Mozzarella cheese in natural resources. The given functional unit was 1 kg of Mozzarella cheese, where environmental aspects were taken into consideration since the reception of the milk at the gate of the industry until the expedition of the final product, system boundary known as gate-to-gate. According to the ISO 14040 (2006) and 14044 (2006) standards, the impact calculations were conducted through the software SimaPro®, with the application of the ReCiPe Midpoint H method. The impact categories assessed were: Fossil Depletion, Water Depletion, Particulate Matter Formation, Photochemical Oxidants Formation, Freshwater Eutrophication, Terrestrial Acidification, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change. It was observed that the production of milk consisted of the main responsible for the impacts generated in the life cycle assessed, with contributions in all categories assessed, ranging from 3% for ozone depletion to 99.5% for freshwater eutrophication. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to adopt sustainable alternatives by the dairy to mitigate the environmental impacts generated in its productive process, despite the reuse of the whey already carried out in the company.