Uncertainties in the carbon footprint of refined wheat products: a case study on Swedish pasta

Purpose  

Calculating the carbon footprint (CF) of food is becoming increasingly important in climate change communication. To design effective CF labelling systems or reduction measures, it is necessary to understand the accuracy of the calculated CF values. This study quantified the uncertainty in the CF of wheat and of a common refined wheat-based product, pasta, for different resolutions of farm-level in-data to gain an increased understanding of the origins and magnitude of uncertainties in food CFs.     

Uncertainties in a carbon footprint model for detergents; quantifying the confidence in a comparative result

Background, aim, and scope  

A new trend driven by climate change concerns is the interest to label consumer products with a carbon footprint (CF) number. Here, we present a study that examines the uncertainty in the estimated CFs of a liquid and a compact powder detergent and how the uncertainty varies with the type of comparison one wishes to make.     

Managing the carbon footprint of products: the contribution of the method composed of financial statements (MC3)

Purpose  

Carbon footprints (CF) provide companies, customers, and other agents with information related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the life cycle of products, identifying key points in the supply chain, potential risks, and opportunities of improvement. This paper briefly examines how the method composed of financial statements (MC3) (MC3, as coined from the name of the method in Spanish, i.e., método compuesto de las cuentas contables.) approaches to specific requirements related to the assessment of product GHG emissions, pointing out the contribution of this method to assessing and communicating the carbon footprint of products.     

Uncertainty of global warming potential for milk production on a New Zealand farm and implications for decision making

Background, aim and scope  

As a food exporting nation, New Zealand recognises that the Global Warming Potential (GWP) impact of agriculture has become important to food customers. Food production policy and industry analysts make GWP decisions based on greenhouse gas inventory and life cycle assessment (LCA) results. For decision making, the level of confidence associated with information is important. However, treatment of uncertainty has been problematic in LCA, especially in agricultural systems. In this paper, the GWP of 1 kg of milk was used as a case study to test the feasibility of quantifying uncertainties by Monte Carlo simulation in an LCA applied to an agriculture product. The study also contributes to the development of good practice and has implications for the incorporation of uncertainties into decision making.     

Uncertainty in environmentally conscious decision making: beer or wine?

Purpose

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is being used increasingly in decision support situations. In actual cases, the sources of uncertainty are easily hidden in the complexity. Methods for taking uncertainty into account are recommended by LCA guidelines, but actual application remains rare. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the sources of uncertainty in a practical simple selection case wherein a customer makes a decision between beer and wine in a restaurant, considering the selected criteria and the given information. The uncertainty in LCA results is connected to the broader scope of decision analysis.

Methods

Life cycle inventories were collected for beer and wine production from existing literature. The functional unit was chosen to be one serving of alcohol: beer or wine. For illustrative purposes, only the global warming potential indicator was included in the LCA through carbon footprint (CF). Probabilistic uncertainty analysis was applied to the CF system using Monte Carlo simulation. Water footprint was also roughly considered. In addition, three non-environmental indicators were included in the decision: weight control, price, and taste. The comparison between the two products was constructed as a multiple-criteria decision analytical problem.

Results and discussion

The results indicated that beer had, on average, a higher CF value than wine did. However, the difference was not significant, and within the uncertainty range, also the opposite conclusion was possible. The ratio of wine to beer CF was dominated by the uncertainty in the N₂O emissions of wine production. When all of the decision criteria were included, the level of uncertainty prevented robust overall conclusions about preference for beer or wine. However, depending on the utility differences assigned to subjective indicators, there existed also cases wherein decisions could be made at a 10?% risk level regardless of high overall uncertainty.

Conclusions

In many cases, the uncertainties of LCA are dwarfed by the overall uncertainty of the decision situation. However, as shown by our example, in many cases, reasonable decisions can be made in spite of high uncertainties. The uncertainties of single LCA indicators should be considered in relation to the decision-making problem, which depends on the uncertainty of LCA indicators but also significantly on the weighting of the indicators and the related uncertainty. Successful decision making depends on both the magnitude of uncertainty and the differences in expected utility value between alternatives. More attention should be paid to uncertainty analysis considering the weighting factors.     

DNA demethylation-dependent enhancement of toll-like receptor-2 gene expression in cystic fibrosis epithelial cells involves SP1-activated transcription

Background  

The clinical course of cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by recurrent pulmonary infections and chronic inflammation. We have recently shown that decreased methylation of the toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2) promoter leads to an apparent CF-related up-regulation of TLR2. This up-regulation could be responsible, in part, for the CF-associated enhanced proinflammatory responses to various bacterial products in epithelial cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying DNA hypomethylation-dependent enhancement of TLR2 expression in CF cells remain unknown.     

Biotic interactions influence the projected distribution of a specialist mammal under climate change

Aim

To measure the effects of including biotic interactions on climate‐based species distribution models (SDMs) used to predict distribution shifts under climate change. We evaluated the performance of distribution models for an endangered marsupial, the northern bettong (Bettongia tropica), comparing models that used only climate variables with models that also took into account biotic interactions.

Location

North‐east Queensland, Australia.

Methods

We developed separate climate‐based distribution models for the northern bettong, its two main resources and a competitor species. We then constructed models for the northern bettong by including climate suitability estimates for the resources and competitor as additional predictor variables to make climate + resource and climate + resource + competition models. We projected these models onto seven future climate scenarios and compared predictions of northern bettong distribution made by these differently structured models, using a ‘global’ metric, the I similarity statistic, to measure overlap in distribution and a ‘local’ metric to identify where predictions differed significantly.

Results

Inclusion of food resource biotic interactions improved model performance. Over moderate climate changes, up to 3.0 °C of warming, the climate‐only model for the northern bettong gave similar predictions of distribution to the more complex models including interactions, with differences only at the margins of predicted distributions. For climate changes beyond 3.0 °C, model predictions diverged significantly. The interactive model predicted less contraction of distribution than the simpler climate‐only model.

Main conclusions

Distribution models that account for interactions with other species, in particular direct resources, improve model predictions in the present‐day climate. For larger climate changes, shifts in distribution of interacting species cause predictions of interactive models to diverge from climate‐only models. Incorporating interactions with other species in SDMs may be needed for long‐term prediction of changes in distribution of species under climate change, particularly for specialized species strongly dependent on a small number of biotic interactions.     

Does epigenetic polymorphism contribute to phenotypic variances in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Jatropha curcas</Emphasis> L.?

Background  

There is a growing interest in Jatropha curcas L. (jatropha) as a biodiesel feedstock plant. Variations in its morphology and seed productivity have been well documented. However, there is the lack of systematic comparative evaluation of distinct collections under same climate and agronomic practices. With the several reports on low genetic diversity in jatropha collections, there is uncertainty on genetic contribution to jatropha morphology.     

Simplified tools for global warming potential evaluation: when ‘good enough’ is best

Background, aim and scope  

In spite of a number of lingering issues, life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely recognised as one of the most powerful tools to investigate the environmental performance of a product or service. Carbon footprint (CF) analysis can also be considered a subset of LCA, limited to a single impact category (i.e. global warming potential (GWP)). However, the inherent complexity of a full LCA or CF analysis often stands in the way of their widespread application in the industry and policy-making sectors. For these latter ambits, this paper advocates the adoption of tailor-made streamlined approaches, with reduced inventory requirements and impact assessment scope. Two such examples are provided, respectively addressing the evaluation of GWP in the development of new product standards and the GWP savings attainable through the use of recycled materials.     

GOtcha: a new method for prediction of protein function assessed by the annotation of seven genomes

Background  

The function of a novel gene product is typically predicted by transitive assignment of annotation from similar sequences. We describe a novel method, GOtcha, for predicting gene product function by annotation with Gene Ontology (GO) terms. GOtcha predicts GO term associations with term-specific probability (P-score) measures of confidence. Term-specific probabilities are a novel feature of GOtcha and allow the identification of conflicts or uncertainty in annotation.     

Parameter uncertainty in LCA: stochastic sampling under correlation

Purpose  

At the parameter level, data inaccuracy, data gaps, and the use of unrepresentative data have been recognized as sources of uncertainty in life cycle assessment (LCA). In many LCA uncertainty studies, parameter distributions were created based on the measured variability or on “rules of thumb,” but the possible existence of correlation was not explored. The correlation between parameters may alter the sampling space and, thus, yield unrepresentative results. The objective of this article is to describe the effect of correlation between input parameters (and the final product) on the outcome of an uncertainty analysis, carried out for an LCA of an agricultural product.     

Proteomic profiling of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</Emphasis> AES-1R,PAO1 and PA14 reveals potential virulence determinants associated with a transmissible cystic fibrosis-associated strain

Background  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). While most CF patients are thought to acquire P. aeruginosa from the environment, person-person transmissible strains have been identified in CF clinics worldwide. The molecular basis for transmissibility and colonization of the CF lung remains poorly understood.     

Primary metabolism in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lactobacillus sakei</Emphasis> food isolates by proteomic analysis

Background  

Lactobacillus sakei is an important food-associated lactic acid bacterium commonly used as starter culture for industrial meat fermentation, and with great potential as a biopreservative in meat and fish products. Understanding the metabolic mechanisms underlying the growth performance of a strain to be used for food fermentations is important for obtaining high-quality and safe products. Proteomic analysis was used to study the primary metabolism in ten food isolates after growth on glucose and ribose, the main sugars available for L. sakei in meat and fish.     

LCA study of unconsumed food and the influence of consumer behavior

Purpose

In the light of anthropogenic resource depletion and the resulting influences on the greenhouse effect as well as globally occurring famine, food waste has garnered increased public interest in recent years. The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental impacts of food waste and to determine to what extent consumers’ behavior influences the environmental burden of food consumption in households.

Methods

A life cycle assessment (LCA) study of three food products is conducted, following the ISO 14040/44 life cycle assessment guidelines. This study addresses the impact categories climate change (GWP100), eutrophication (EP), and acidification (AP). Primary energy demand (PED) is also calculated. For adequate representation of consumer behavior, scenarios based on various consumer types are generated in the customer stage. The customer stage includes the food-related activities: shopping, storage, preparation, and disposal of food products as well as the disposal of the sales packaging.

Results and discussion

If the consumer acts careless towards the environment, the customer stage appears as the main hotspot in the LCA of food products. The environmental impact of food products can be reduced in the customer stage by an environmentally conscious consumer. Shopping has the highest effect on the evaluated impact categories and the PED. Additionally, consumers can reduce the resulting emissions by decreasing the electric energy demand, particularly concerning food storage or preparation. Moreover, results show that the avoidance of wasting unconsumed food can reduce the environmental impact significantly.

Conclusions

Results of this study show that the influence of consumer behavior on the LCA results is important. The customer stage of food products should not be overlooked in LCA studies. To enable comparison among results of other LCA studies, the LCA community needs to develop a common methodology for modeling consumer behavior.

     

Comparing apples with oranges: on the functional equivalence of food products for comparative LCAs

Purpose

In this article, we present an innovative way of deriving comparable functional systems for comparative life cycle assessments (LCAs) of food products. We define the functional unit as the contribution of one or more foods to the nutrient composition of a weekly diet and, after a product substitution, employ a product system expansion approach to search for an alternative set of products which provides an equivalent nutritional composition.

Methods

Replacement is regarded within the context of a weekly diet. The comparable diet is a solution to a linear problem which finds the diet that is most similar to the starting one, subject to nutritional and/or other constraints that guarantee a minimum dietary quality. The formulation gives priority to selecting food products according to popularity.

Results

We illustrate our method with two examples. We show that a baseline diet containing 3.6 servings of apples a week is equivalent to a similar diet in which the apples are replaced with 3.6 servings of oranges and servings of strawberry and kiwi are removed. These changes are necessary mainly because of differences in the vitamin C content between apples and oranges. The second example is a replacement of all meat in a weekly diet by a soy-based meat substitute. In this case, additional fish products need to be consumed to make up for a lack of selenium and essential amino acids.

Conclusions

We present an innovative and objective way to overcome the challenge of comparing two or more food products in a comparative LCA. Our approach is systematic and finds the alternative diet that best meets the nutritional criteria as well as reflecting the food preferences of the population. The method selects products according to the role they play in the dietary pattern. Moreover, the method is flexible enough to allow for different selection criteria and other nutritional and non-nutritional constraints.     

MEXALCA: a modular method for the extrapolation of crop LCA

Purpose  

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used for the environmental assessment of food products, but difficulties arise when evaluating large portfolios of food products or when faced with a diversity of sources of ingredients and/or frequent changes of suppliers. In such situations, a specific, in-depth assessment of each ingredient is not feasible, and screening approaches using a few LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) results are not recommended. The goal of this paper is to propose an intermediate solution between a screening assessment using limited data and specific LCA for all products considering all sources of ingredients.     

Phylogenomic reconstruction of lactic acid bacteria: an update

Background  

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are important in the food industry for the production of fermented food products and in human health as commensals in the gut. However, the phylogenetic relationships among LAB species remain under intensive debate owing to disagreements among different data sets.     

Post-ovulatory ageing and egg quality: A proteomic analysis of rainbow trout coelomic fluid

Background  

In fish, oocyte post-ovulatory ageing is associated with egg quality decrease. During this period, eggs are held in the body cavity where they bath in a semi-viscous liquid known as coelomic fluid (CF). CF components are suspected to play a role in maintaining oocyte fertility and developmental competence (egg quality). However, CF proteic composition remains poorly studied. Thus rainbow trout CF proteome was studied during the egg quality decrease associated with oocyte post-ovulatory ageing.     

Development of stable reporter system cloning <Emphasis Type="Italic">luxCDABE</Emphasis> genes into chromosome of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salmonella enterica</Emphasis> serotypes using Tn7 transposon

Background  

Salmonellosis may be a food safety problem when raw food products are mishandled and not fully cooked. In previous work, we developed bioluminescent Salmonella enterica serotypes using a plasmid-based reporting system that can be used for real-time monitoring of the pathogen's growth on food products in short term studies. In this study, we report the use of a Tn7-based transposon system for subcloning of luxCDABE genes into the chromosome of eleven Salmonella enterica serotypes isolated from the broiler production continuum.     

Identification to the species level of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lactobacillus</Emphasis> isolated in probiotic prospecting studies of human,animal or food origin by 16S-23S rRNA restriction profiling

Background  

The accurate identification of Lactobacillus and other co-isolated bacteria during microbial ecological studies of ecosystems such as the human or animal intestinal tracts and food products is a hard task by phenotypic methods requiring additional tests such as protein and/or lipids profiling.