Abstract

RIBEIRO, Tânia I. B.; NUNES, Catarina A. S.  and  NUNE, João M. S. A.. Life Cycle assessment of nonconforming apple. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2015, vol.38, n.3, pp.372-382. ISSN 0871-018X.

Nonconforming apple, considered as a by-product in fruit production, is discarded due to its low calibre, presence of stains and deformations, among others. These apples do not match commercialization standards when sold as fresh fruit. However, due to their outstanding organoleptic characteristics, nonconforming apples should not be discarded, but instead considered as an added value product. The agro-alimentary processing of these fruits consists of a valuable alternative for taking advantage of these otherwise wasted food, in which dehydration methods have emerged as high profile options. The dehydration technique presents innumerous advantages, including an increase in shelf life and a reduction in product size, facilitating therefore its transport and storage. In this paper, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed to analyse the environmental impact of the nonconforming apple disposal system, considering two scenarios: nonconforming apple sold to retail (C1) and subjected to a dehydration process in order to obtain snacks (C2). The evaluation of various parameters of environmental impact has shown that dehydration consists an excellent alternative method for the recovery and reuse of nonconforming apple. This scenario is translated by a less impact of the transport and storage phases on the different environmental parameters.

Keywords : apple; nonconforming apple; lifecycle assessment; dehydration.

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