How to eat sardines
If you need to find the best way regarding to the environment (CO2 equivalent emissions) on how to prepare sardines, you just need to read:
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of a Canned Sardine Product from Portugal
Cheila Almeida, Sofia Vaz and Friederike Ziegler
This study aims to assess the environmental impacts of canned sardines in olive oil, by considering fishing, processing, and packaging, using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The case study concerns a product of a canning factory based in Portugal and packed in aluminum cans. It is the first LCA of a processed seafood product made with the traditional canning method.
The production of both cans and olive oil are the most important process in the considered impact categories. The production of olives contributes to the high environmental load of olive oil, related to cultivation and harvesting phases. The production of aluminum cans is the most significant process for all impact categories, except ozone depletion potential and eutrophication potential, resulting from the high energy demand and the extraction of raw materials.
To compare to other sardine products consumed in Portugal, such as frozen and fresh sardines, transport to the wholesaler and store was added. The environmental cost of canned sardines is almost seven times higher per kilogram of edible product.
The main action to optimize the environmental performance of canned sardines is therefore to replace the packaging and diminish the olive oil losses as much as possible. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by half when plastic packaging is considered rather than aluminum. Frozen and fresh sardines represent much lower environmental impacts than canned sardines. Nevertheless, when other sardine products are not possible, it becomes feasible to use sardines for human consumption, preventing them from being wasted or used suboptimally as feed.
It was surprising to find out that olive oil in the can sardine had almost the same environmental cost than sardines.
There are many mechanical procedures before olives turn into olive oil.
So, it would be desirable to do not waste the olive oil from the canned sardines and think to use it to prepare the dish.
Other interesting idea is that, even though canned sardines to not need energy to be in colder temperatures, they represent high environmental cost due to the can production.
Off course, this is among sardine products but if we compare to other seafood, sardine still is a product with relatively low environmental costs, especially comparing to meat.
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of a Canned Sardine Product from Portugal
Cheila Almeida, Sofia Vaz and Friederike Ziegler
This study aims to assess the environmental impacts of canned sardines in olive oil, by considering fishing, processing, and packaging, using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The case study concerns a product of a canning factory based in Portugal and packed in aluminum cans. It is the first LCA of a processed seafood product made with the traditional canning method.
The production of both cans and olive oil are the most important process in the considered impact categories. The production of olives contributes to the high environmental load of olive oil, related to cultivation and harvesting phases. The production of aluminum cans is the most significant process for all impact categories, except ozone depletion potential and eutrophication potential, resulting from the high energy demand and the extraction of raw materials.
To compare to other sardine products consumed in Portugal, such as frozen and fresh sardines, transport to the wholesaler and store was added. The environmental cost of canned sardines is almost seven times higher per kilogram of edible product.
The main action to optimize the environmental performance of canned sardines is therefore to replace the packaging and diminish the olive oil losses as much as possible. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by half when plastic packaging is considered rather than aluminum. Frozen and fresh sardines represent much lower environmental impacts than canned sardines. Nevertheless, when other sardine products are not possible, it becomes feasible to use sardines for human consumption, preventing them from being wasted or used suboptimally as feed.
It was surprising to find out that olive oil in the can sardine had almost the same environmental cost than sardines.
There are many mechanical procedures before olives turn into olive oil.
So, it would be desirable to do not waste the olive oil from the canned sardines and think to use it to prepare the dish.
Other interesting idea is that, even though canned sardines to not need energy to be in colder temperatures, they represent high environmental cost due to the can production.
Off course, this is among sardine products but if we compare to other seafood, sardine still is a product with relatively low environmental costs, especially comparing to meat.