Swiss Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
2023–2026
Life Cycle Assessments for 15 By-Product Streams in the Food Industry
Environmental Prioritization of Recycling and Valorization Pathways
The Swiss government aims to halve food waste by 2030, partly by making better use of by-products from the food industry. For 15 relevant by-product streams, we compared various processing methods — whether for the production of new food, animal feed, or energy — in terms of their environmental impact.
In Switzerland, more than a third of the food produced ends up as waste, with significant environmental consequences. Against this backdrop, the Swiss government launched the “Action Plan Against Food Waste” in 2022. A key approach is the environmentally sensible use of by-products from food production. By-streams such as whey, wheat bran, or chicken offal are often used as animal feed or for biogas production, even though further processing into new food products holds great potential.
Against this backdrop, intep was commissioned to conduct a detailed analysis of 15 major by-product streams and to evaluate various options for valorization (processing into food) and recovery (e.g., use as animal feed or for energy production) in terms of their environmental impact. This assessment is based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.
We prepared comparative life cycle assessments for 15 relevant by-products—including whey, wheat bran, molasses, rapeseed meal, brewer’s grains, okara, coffee grounds, and meat and poultry offal. For each by-product, we identified two to three recovery pathways and five to six utilization options. The environmental impacts were assessed using environmental impact points (UBP) based on the ecological scarcity method, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. The assessment considered both the additional environmental impacts of the processes and the benefits resulting from the replacement of other products.
The results show that most valorization and recycling pathways provide a positive environmental benefit. In particular, valorization — the processing into food — typically offers the greatest ecological advantage, especially when it replaces primary, environmentally intensive products. Energy recovery can also be beneficial, particularly when it substitutes fossil fuels. The use of by-products as animal feed can also be ecologically advantageous, depending on the by-stream. The environmental benefit largely depends on which product is replaced by the by-product.
The study on the valorization of by-products supports the prioritization of various utilization pathways in industry and demonstrates how the upgrading of by-streams can contribute to achieving the goals of the Action Plan Against Food Waste.
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