RT Journal Article
T1 Applying a water-energy-food nexus approach to seafood products from the European Atlantic area
A1 Ceballos-Santos, Sandra
A1 González García, Sara
A1 Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
A1 Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo
A1 Aldaco, Rubén
K1 Fisheries
K1 Aquaculture
K1 Life cycle assessment
K1 Environmental footprints
K1 Nutritional index
K1 Ecolabel
AB By 2050, food production’s environmental impacts are projected to double without intervention. Crucial changes in dietary habits are needed, and seafood can be pivotal. The focus in calculating burdens using life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators has shifted towards exploring interconnections within the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. Addressing this evolution, this manuscript has applied an innovative methodology to calculate a WEF nexus index (WEFni). This index seamlessly integrates both environmental and nutritional profiles across diverse case studies involving fisheries, aquaculture, and processing production systems in the European Atlantic area. The results showed that when it comes to fishing, purse seine fishing obtained the highest score (99%). For the aquaculture activities, seafood (>73%) obtained better results than fish farming. About processing treatments, freezing (>79%) has lower environmental loads than canning. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was carried out according to a caloric- and edible-based functional unit as well as the modification of the weighting factors assigned to each footprint, in which important variations were reported in the WEFni of most case studies. Consequently, although the methodological guidelines supporting the WEFni have great potential to serve as an ecolabeling tool, certain aspects need to be re-evaluated. On the other hand, it could be interesting to include the potential biodiversity loss, as well as other socioeconomic indicators, with the purpose of considering a more sustainability criteria. Finally, the contribution of this paper to the food industry literature is of paramount importance, as it represents a first step towards holistic assessments and easy-to-understand ecolabelling pro cesses that can promote sustainable production and consumption.
PB Elsevier
SN 1879-1786
YR 2024
FD 2024-02-08
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/39120
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/39120
LA eng
NO Ceballos-Santos, S., Entrena-Barbero, E., Laso, J., Margallo, M., González-García, S., Moreira, M. T., ... & Aldaco, R. (2024). Applying a water-energy-food nexus approach to seafood products from the European Atlantic area. Journal of Cleaner Production, 442, 140804.
NO Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de Los Castros, s/n, 39005, Santander, Spain
NO CRETUS, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
NO IPMA, Instituto Portuges do Mar e da Atmosfera, Divisao de Aquacultura, Valorizaçao e Bioprospeao, Avenida Doutor Alfredo Magalhaes  Ramalho 6, 1495-165, Lisboa, Portugal
NO CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigaçao Marinha e Ambiental, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixoes, Avenida General Norton de Matos, S/N, 4450-208, Matosinhos, Portugal
NO Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitario de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
NO EnergyLab, Fonte das Abelleiras, s/n, Campus Universidad de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain
NO Galician Water Research Center Foundation (Cetaqua Galicia), AquaHub - A Vila da Auga, Rúa Jose Villar Granjel 33, 15890, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
NO Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33400, Talence, France
NO School of Engineering, University of Galway, H91HX33, Ireland
NO Ryan Institute, University of Galway, H91HX33, Ireland
NO ANFACO-CECOPESCA, Campus University 16, 36310, Vigo, Spain
NO Xunta de Galicia (ED481A-2021/164, ED431C 2021/37
NO Interreg Atlantic Area (EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026