2025 Volume 2025 Issue 22 Pages 23-
A large amount of food processing by-products and food leftovers are treated as waste, while conventional beef production in Japan depends heavily on imported concentrate feed, resulting in considerable impacts on the environment. The utilization of "eco-feed", livestock feed upcycled from food processing by-products, food leftovers, and similar materials, is expected not only to reduce the economic costs of preparing feed but also to help mitigate its associated environmental impacts. This study conducted a life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of a Japanese Black cattle production system using eco-feed primarily made from silage of food processing by-products (Eco-feed beef), and compared it with the conventional Japanese beef production method. The analysis considered the mitigation of environmental impacts achieved by avoiding waste disposal through using food processing by-products and food leftovers as animal feed. The objective was to determine the reduction in environmental load when using eco-feed upcycled from these materials. For Eco-feed beef production, the impacts of feed production on climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and energy consumption were mitigated by 27%, 17%, 15%, and 26%, respectively, compared with conventional production. Similarly, the impacts of the feed transportation process were mitigated by 14%, 12%, 12%, and 16%, respectively. The mitigating effect of avoiding waste disposal, predominantly landfill, accounted for 88% of the total climate change impact of the other processes in Eco-feed beef production. Overall, the Eco-feed beef production system outperformed the conventional production system, mitigating the impacts on climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and energy consumption by 89%, 9%, 3%, and 26%, respectively. These results demonstrated that upcycling food processing by-products and food leftover, which would otherwise be disposed of in landfills, into eco-feed substantially reduced the impacts on climate change and energy consumption.
