Product name
Margarine, average fat content, packaged, at consumer
Reference flow
1 kg of packaged product
System boundaries
The life cycle analysis is from cradle to grave and include the following phases: raw materials (ingredients), packaging, transport of raw materials and packaging, production of margarine, distribution, consumption and waste management and recycling of packaging waste.
The reference flow is defined as 1 kg of packaged product (product weight) to the consumer.
Wastes and end-of-life
The amount of waste from the production site amounts to 88.7% for material recycling, and 11.3% for energy recycling. The amount of waste is allocated to the products based on the economic value of total turnover.
Disposal of consumer packaging is based on the average waste system for household waste for 2019 reported by Grønt Punkt Norway, 2020, plastic: 33.5% material recycling, 66.4% incineration; cardboard: 50.3% material recycling and 49.6% combustion with energy utilization.
Use advice of the dataset
If this dataset is used as a proxy for other margarine products, it is important to take into account the type of fat included in the actual product and its packaging. Ecoinvent 3.9 (cut-off by classification) and Agrifootprint 5.0 is used for the background data.
Technology description
A number of raw materials are included in margarine production, each of which has its own production process and is transported to margarine production in Norway. Generic data is used for raw materials production, but the data is adapted to the country of origin’s energy sources and specific data where this is stated by the manufacturer. The type of transport depends on where the raw material is produced. Transport of the raw materials can be divided into transport from the farm to raw material processing and to margarine production. The logistics for the various raw materials is complex and some raw materials are not grown close to where the raw material is processed. The overseas agricultural products are transported from the farm or plantation to the first processing stage and from there to the port to be shipped to Europe, where further processing takes place. Production and transport of packaging is also included. In the margarine production, energy is used to process the raw material for margarine, which is packaged and distributed to wholesale, retail and consumers. The consumption phase includes transport from retail to consumer and standard values from PEFCR Dairy Products; 62% drive 5 km by passenger car, 5% drive 5 km by van and 33% either walk or cycle and have no impact. Electricity for cooling of the product in the household is included. Disposal of consumer packaging is based on the average waste system for household waste, food waste not included.
Quality level
Good
Location
Norway
Geographical representativeness description
Representative for Norwegian margarine production, 60% – 80% fat, including packaging.
The data quality and representativeness are good for most processes. Data from Ecoinvent and Agri-footprint have been used where it has not been possible to obtain specific information. These two databases can have quite different results for some processes and a thorough assessment has been made when choosing a process. In general, ecoinvent data has been used for chemicals and energy. For agricultural products, Agri-footprint has more precise data at, for example, crop level when compared with FAO statistics.
Country-specific data is used for the raw materials that are included with more than 1%. Specific data is used for the amount of raw materials and packaging and for the production process.
Quality level
Good
Reference year
2019
Time representativeness description
The reference year for the margarine production process is 2019. For upstream and downstream processes, the time representativeness varies, but in general the data is representative for the period 1998-2018.
Time quality level
Fair
LCI method principle
This life cycle analysis is in line with ISO standards 14040-44 and 14025. The main principles of Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for Dairy Products (European Dairy Association, 2018) and Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) Feed for food producing animals has been followed since there are no separate product-specific rules (PCR) for margarine.
Cut off for mass or energy flows
Cut off for raw materials below 1% by weight of the product
Data collection period
2019
Data set generator
Hanne Møller, Simon Saxegård
References
NORSUS report OR 55.20 (closed)
