Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas
The consequences of climate change directly affect food production and threaten food security. Therefore, efforts are needed to reduce environmental impacts while ensuring access to food. Massive food services play a key role in this context; however, related literature lacks comparative studies bet...
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2025-06-01
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| author | Natalia Velastín Rodrigo Contreras-Núñez Ernesto Pino-Cortés Lorena Espinoza Pérez Fidel Vallejo Andrea Espinoza Pérez |
| author_facet | Natalia Velastín Rodrigo Contreras-Núñez Ernesto Pino-Cortés Lorena Espinoza Pérez Fidel Vallejo Andrea Espinoza Pérez |
| author_sort | Natalia Velastín |
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| description | The consequences of climate change directly affect food production and threaten food security. Therefore, efforts are needed to reduce environmental impacts while ensuring access to food. Massive food services play a key role in this context; however, related literature lacks comparative studies between home cooking and restaurants. Through life-cycle assessment, this research compares the environmental impacts generated by stewed chickpeas, a nutritious and flavorful meal prepared at a large food service offered by a public university, and those prepared at home using two recipes. The system boundaries consider the impact of ingredient production, processing, cooking, cooling, and reheating, as well as waste and wastewater generation. The functional unit (FU) weighs 100 g to facilitate comparison. The findings indicate that the recipe from the massive food service has a significant impact on human health, resulting in 3.54·10<sup>−7</sup> DALY; meanwhile, the other two scenarios generate approximately 7.2·10<sup>−7</sup> DALY. Moreover, regarding biodiversity impact, the recipe from the massive food service reaches 8.57·10<sup>−10</sup> species.yr; by contrast, the other scenarios generate around 1.01·10<sup>−10</sup> species.yr. Massive food services exhibit a lower environmental impact than home meals in preparing stewed chickpeas. This difference is primarily attributed to the cooling and reheating stages that occur when eating outside the home. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
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| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| spelling | doaj-art-62ecbd45add34894ba4025e8788bee762025-08-20T03:49:55ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-06-011513714110.3390/app15137141Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed ChickpeasNatalia Velastín0Rodrigo Contreras-Núñez1Ernesto Pino-Cortés2Lorena Espinoza Pérez3Fidel Vallejo4Andrea Espinoza Pérez5Industrial Engineering Department, University of Santiago of Chile, Estación Central, Santiago 9170124, ChileIndustrial Engineering Department, University of Santiago of Chile, Estación Central, Santiago 9170124, ChileEscuela de Ingeniería Química, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso 2362854, ChileIndustrial Engineering Department, University of Santiago of Chile, Estación Central, Santiago 9170124, ChileIndustrial Engineering, National University of Chimborazo, Riobamba 060108, EcuadorIndustrial Engineering Department, University of Santiago of Chile, Estación Central, Santiago 9170124, ChileThe consequences of climate change directly affect food production and threaten food security. Therefore, efforts are needed to reduce environmental impacts while ensuring access to food. Massive food services play a key role in this context; however, related literature lacks comparative studies between home cooking and restaurants. Through life-cycle assessment, this research compares the environmental impacts generated by stewed chickpeas, a nutritious and flavorful meal prepared at a large food service offered by a public university, and those prepared at home using two recipes. The system boundaries consider the impact of ingredient production, processing, cooking, cooling, and reheating, as well as waste and wastewater generation. The functional unit (FU) weighs 100 g to facilitate comparison. The findings indicate that the recipe from the massive food service has a significant impact on human health, resulting in 3.54·10<sup>−7</sup> DALY; meanwhile, the other two scenarios generate approximately 7.2·10<sup>−7</sup> DALY. Moreover, regarding biodiversity impact, the recipe from the massive food service reaches 8.57·10<sup>−10</sup> species.yr; by contrast, the other scenarios generate around 1.01·10<sup>−10</sup> species.yr. Massive food services exhibit a lower environmental impact than home meals in preparing stewed chickpeas. This difference is primarily attributed to the cooling and reheating stages that occur when eating outside the home.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/13/7141life-cycle assessmentmassive food serviceuniversity canteenhomemade meal |
| spellingShingle | Natalia Velastín Rodrigo Contreras-Núñez Ernesto Pino-Cortés Lorena Espinoza Pérez Fidel Vallejo Andrea Espinoza Pérez Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas Applied Sciences life-cycle assessment massive food service university canteen homemade meal |
| title | Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas |
| title_full | Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas |
| title_fullStr | Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas |
| title_short | Environmental Impact of Massive Food Services and Homemade Meals: A Case Study on Stewed Chickpeas |
| title_sort | environmental impact of massive food services and homemade meals a case study on stewed chickpeas |
| topic | life-cycle assessment massive food service university canteen homemade meal |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/13/7141 |
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