PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT IN THE OLIVE OIL SECTOR: STATE OF THE ART

As a part of the development of the Environmental Footprint (EF) guidelines, in June 2014 the European Commission started 11 pilot projects for the development of Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) for food, feed and beverage products. The PEFCRs are developed by technical secretariats involving various stakeholders from industries, academia, governments, trade unions and non-governmental organisations. This paper presents the state of the art of developing the PEFCR for the olive oil sector. The functional unit is defined as a litre of packed olive oil and the system boundaries cover the whole supply chain from cradle-to-grave. A screening study that estimated the EF of the average olive oil consumed in the European markets showed that olive production phase had the highest contribution to most environmental impact categories. The results of the screening study provide a benchmark that will be further adjusted after the current draft PEFCR will be tested in case studies for real products.