Material flow analysis and sustainability of the Italian meat industry

The Italian meat industry represents a core business for the national economy, accounting for over 20 billion euro (15% of the domestic agri-food value), but requires large amounts of energy and produces several types of waste, of which food loss and waste account for an always-increasing amount. The United Nations 2030 Agenda has established food waste as a global concern, contributing to social, environmental and economic losses. Nevertheless, only a few studies have addressed food waste quantification from production to consumption stage. This paper, in line with Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597 concerning a common methodology and minimum quality requirements for the uniform measurement of levels of food waste, applies the Material Flow Analysis (MFA) methodology to the Italian meat industry, testing its reliability in sustainability assessments. With MFA it was possible first to quantify and qualify food waste streams and secondly to calculate related material cycles and eco-efficiency indicators. Results demonstrate that, in 2018, the Italian meat industry processed more than 4.9 Mt to produce approximately 2.0 Mt of fresh meat, 1.9 Mt of co-products and by-products, 0.7–0.8 Mt of meat-based products and more than 0.2–0.3 Mt of food waste at retail and final consumption. Material Use Efficiency was estimated at 0.95–0.97 (96%) at slaughtering, drastically decreasing to 0.79–0.85 (82%) when “unconscious” food waste was included, showing that it represents a significant variable mass for material cycle indicator calculation. On the other side, a sharp increase in eco-efficiency indicators was assessed, showing an average variation of approximately +20% in the last ten years in terms of material input productivity