The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method enables the examination of the overall impact of a given product or process on the environment. In this study, the environmental assessment of the life cycle of pet food was conducted on selected commercially available products. Three dog foods were analyzed: two dry foods (A and B) with beef content of 14% and 75%, respectively, and one wet food (C) with 100% beef content. The assessment was carried out using SimaPro 8.1 software and the ReCiPe model, as well as the Ecoinvent 3.0 database. The boundaries of the analyzed system included the technological processes necessary for the production of the pet food, electricity consumption during production, and the composition of the pet food materials. The analysis revealed that the highest negative impact on the environment in all categories (human health, ecosystem, natural resources) was due to the beef content. As the beef content increased, the negative impact on the environment significantly increased. The other ingredients, as well as the energy consumption during the production processes, and the type of packaging, accounted for only a small percentage of the environmental impact of the studied products. The highest indicator among the analyzed pet foods (approx. 1500 ...
Environmental assessments of diets are most commonly based on average water and carbon footprint values, whereas considerably less attention has been paid to the variability of dietary patterns and the identification of the factors driving environmental pressure. Moreover, water and carbon footprints are often treated as interchangeable indicators of environmental impact, despite reflecting different mechanisms associated with food production and consumption. The aim of this study was to identify the main sources of environmental pressure arising from individual dietary choices through a comparative analysis of the water and carbon footprints of university students' diets and an assessment of their weekly variability. The study was based on seven-day food diaries. For each participant, the mean daily water and carbon footprints were calculated, along with two indicators of their weekly variability and concentration: the coefficient of variation (CV) and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). For both the water and carbon footprints, the average environmental footprint was found to be largely independent of its weekly variability (CV) and concentration (HHI). The CV and HHI showed strong positive correlations, suggesting that they describe related but distinct aspects of the weekly distribution of environmental pressure. Regression models identified different determinants of the two environmental indicators, demonstrating ...
