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Cited by 86Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental ImpactEnvironmental Impact and SustainabilityFood Waste Reduction and Sustainability

Environmental impacts of vegetables consumption in the UK

Open access
Frankowska, Angelina, Jeswani, Harish Kumar, Azapagic, Adisa·2019·Science of The Total Environment
DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.424
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Abstract

A healthy diet depends on the daily intake of vegetables. Yet, their environmental impacts along the full supply chains are scarcely known. Therefore, this paper provides for the first time a comprehensive evaluation of the life cycle environmental impacts of vegetables consumed in UK. The impacts are assessed for 56 fresh and processed products produced domestically and imported from abroad, considering both the product and sectoral levels. At the product level, taking into account the market mix of fresh and processed vegetables for each vegetable type sold in the UK, asparagus has the highest per-kg impacts across most of the 19 impact categories considered, while cabbage, celery and Brussels sprouts are generally environmentally most sustainable. At the sectoral level, the annual consumption of 10.8 t of vegetables generates 20.3 Mt CO2 eq., consumes 260.7 PJ of primary energy and depletes 253 Mt eq. of water. The majority of the impacts are caused by potatoes since they account for 56% of the total amount of vegetables consumed, with crisps and frozen chips contributing most to the total impacts. Importing vegetables grown in unheated greenhouses in Europe has a lower impact than UK vegetables cultivated in heated greenhouses, despite the transportation. The impacts of air-freighted fresh vegetables are around five times higher than of those produced domestically. Even processed products have lower impacts than fresh air-freighted produce. Packaging also contributes significantly to the impacts, in particular glass jars and metal cans used for processed vegetables. Other significant hotspots are open display cabinets at the retailer and cooking of vegetables at home. The results of this study will be useful for food manufacturers, retailers and consumers, helping to identify improvement opportunities along vegetables supply chains.

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  • In general, results of this study are within range of those found in literature across all production systems.

    “In general, the results of this study are within the range of those found in literature across all the productions systems (Bartzas et al., 2015; Fiteinis and Chatzisymeon, 2016; Frankowska et al., 2019; Plawecki et al., 2014; Romero-Gámez et al., 2014).”

    From The role of aeroponic container farms in sustainable food systems – The environmental credentials (2023) · cites this paper as Frankowska et al., 2019

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Authors
Frankowska, A., Jeswani, H. K., & Azapagic, A.
Affiliations
University of Manchester (GB)
Corresponding author
Azapagic, Adisa
ORCID
Venue
Science of The Total Environment
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-09
Volume
682
Pages
80-105
ISSN
0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.424
OpenAlex
W2942747778
Cited by
86
References
58
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 2
FWCI
5.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
Keywords
vegetable consumption, life cycle environmental impact, vegetable supply chain, greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water depletion, imported vegetables, heated greenhouse, air cargo, food packaging, processed vegetables, potato, UK food system
MeSH terms
Diet, Environment, United Kingdom, Humans, Vegetables

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