Case study reveals the environmental impact of the Swedish pea protein value chain

The article is written by RISE researchers Edoardo Desiderio, Kavitha Shanmugam and Karin Östergren, published in Journal of Cleaner Production.

In the study, each stage of the pea protein value chain was examined, from the cultivation of green pea to the production of a vegetarian sausage ready to be delivered to retail by conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessment was based on original data collected for 2021/2022. The LCA allowed the researchers to evaluate the carbon footprint, water usage, energy consumption, and other key environmental indicators. The most contributing stages for the pea sausages were found to be cultivation and sausage production. The results were eye-opening in terms of the impacts of the other ingredients (spices, oils) composing the plant-based sausage, that were sometimes much more impactful than the pea protein itself.

“The study shed a light first and foremost on the importance and magnitude that the choice of a specific allocation method can have over the final results when calculating an environmental performance, and secondly on how companies need to profoundly put attention over the choice of ingredients for the formulation of final products. Ingredients’ origin must be tracked and proven to be sustainable, as these can deeply contribute to the overall impact of the final products themselves”, says Edoardo Desiderio.

The next step of this work is to perform a social sustainability assessment on the same supply chain, to be able to cover the various aspects that can contribute to the achievement of a fully sustainable supply chain. As this type of products are still in their infancy, it is important to build scientific evidence reflecting the different dimensions of sustainability along with technical solutions for improving the value chain.

Link to the publication →