Carbon Footprint Analysis of Ice Cream Production

Abstract

Nowadays, a noticeable trend in society is the search for more and more healthy food products. This is also reflected in the interest in plant-based ingredients replacing animal ones, which are more caloric, difficult to digest, and have more negative environmental impact. The purpose of this study was to determine the carbon footprint (CF) of technological process of ice cream, made with traditional ingredients as well as with fat and sugar substitute ingredients, under laboratory and handcraft conditions. Process-line portable metering was designed and implemented. Emission and production data were recorded for different ice blends; at a laboratory-scale, the determined technological process, CFtech, of traditional ice cream was 0.360 and for ice cream with substitutes 0.385 kg CO2/kg product. The pasteurization process accounted for the largest share in CFtech of ice cream with different contents of substitutes. Under handicraft conditions, the CFtech of traditional ice cream as well as ice cream with fat and sugar substitutes were 0.253 and 0.248 kg CO2/kg product, respectively. In contrast, for standard a handcraft, CF was the lowest at 0.234 kg CO2/kg product. CFtech of laboratory-scale ice cream production is larger than for handcraft production. Pasteurization along with homogenization and ripening accounted for the largest share of CO2 emissions.