Life cycle assessment is a structured analytical method that quantifies the environmental impacts of a product across all stages from raw material production through processing, transport and end of life, identifying hotspots for improvement in food supply chains.
In trade practice
In frozen fruit and vegetable trade, life cycle assessments are commissioned to evaluate impacts such as energy consumption during IQF freezing, refrigerant emissions in cold chain transport and land-use change at farm level. Results inform environmental product declarations and support claims made under retailer or buyer sustainability programmes. Practitioners must define system boundaries clearly; excluding upstream agricultural inputs is a frequent methodological error that undermines comparability. ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 set the internationally recognised framework for conducting and reporting assessments.
In a specification
A buyer sustainability specification may require suppliers to provide a life cycle assessment conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, covering defined system boundaries and functional units agreed between the parties.