Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) used to compare two different methods of processing ripe table olives

The aim of the present study is to analyze the most common method used for processing ripe table olives: the “California style”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to detect the “hot spots” of the system under examination. The LCA results also allowed us to compare the traditional “California style”, here called “method A”, with another “California style”, here called “method B”. We were interested in this latter method, because the European Union is considering introducing it into the product specification of the Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) “La Bella della Daunia”. It was also possible to compare the environmental impacts of the two “California style” methods with those of the “Spanish style” method. From the comparison it is clear that “method B” has a greater environmental impact than “method A” because greater amounts of water and electricity are required, whereas “Spanish style” processing has a lower environmental impact than the ”California style” methods.