Energy Flows and Greenhouses Gases of EU national breads using LCA approach.

The project described encompasses a life cycle evaluation, in terms of energy flows and greenhouse gas emissions related to 21 types of EU bread. The work involved building a common framework with respect to the assumptions and models to be used for the single product assessments in order to achieve consistent LCAs and to obtain comparable results. The system was divided into seven parts: agriculture/breeding, storage, wheat/rye milling, ingredients production, logistics, packaging, bread production. The results show that in both the indicators the breads which have simple recipes, characterised by the presence of flour, water and yeast have the best energy and global warming results. On the contrary, the breads which have more complex recipes, characterised by the presence of animal-based products have the worst results. In all the cases, the energy consumption due to the baking process represents a hot spot.