Dataset Information

Data related to the life cycle assessment of 44 artisanally produced french protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses.

ABSTRACT: Food production is associated with significant environmental impacts. To reduce these, it is first essential to better understand the environmental implications of production processes, and how these can vary among different products. Historically, most studies in this area have focused on comparing environmental impacts among different food categories, but here, we chose to investigate differences at a finer scale, among products belonging to the same category. Cheese was selected as our study model because it is one of the most popular types of food products around the world but is associated with significant environmental impacts. Specifically, we used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of 44 French cheeses that benefit from Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) certification. Our assessments took into account all steps from milk production to the end of the ripening period and the functional unit used was 1 kg of fully ripened cheese. Inventories for milk production were obtained from AGRIBALYSE 3.0. Data on cheeses production stage were collected using PDO specifications, technical datasheets, scientific literature, and three expert opinions. Background inventories (electricity mix, gas production, materials, transport, water, cleaning products) were obtained from the Ecoinvent 3.6 database. Simapro software was used to conduct all LCAs, using the characterization method "EF 3.0 Method (adapted) V1.00 / EF 3.0 normalisation and weighting set". Our final dataset contains details on products, life cycle inventories (LCI), and LCIA results. These data could be useful for cheesemakers seeking to improve the environmental performance of their products.

SUBMITTER: Cortesi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9253473 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) labeling of cheeses has been established by the European Union (EU) as a quality policy that assures the authenticity of a cheese produced in a specific region by applying traditional production methods. However, currently used scientific methods for differentiating and establishing PDO are limited in terms of time, cost, accuracy and their ability to identify through quantifiable methods PDO fraud. Cheese microbiome is a dynamic community that progressively changes throughout ripening, contributing via its metabolism to unique qualitative and sensorial characteristics that differentiate each cheese. High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) methodologies have enabled the more precise identification of the microbial communities developed in fermented cheeses, characterization of their population dynamics during the cheese ripening process, as well as their contribution to the development of specific organoleptic and physio-chemical characteristics. Therefore, their application may provide an additional tool to identify the key microbial species that contribute to PDO cheeses unique sensorial characteristics and to assist to define their typicityin order to distinguish them from various fraudulent products. Additionally, they may assist the cheese-makers to better evaluate the quality, as well as the safety of their products. In this structured literature review indications are provided on the potential for defining PDO enabling differentiating factors based on distinguishable microbial communities shaped throughout the ripening procedures associated to cheese sensorial characteristics, as revealed through metagenomic and metatranscriptomic studies. Conclusively, HTS applications, even though still underexploited, have the potential to demonstrate how the cheese microbiome can affect the ripening process and sensorial characteristics formation via the catabolism of the available nutrients and interplay with other compounds of the matrix and/or production of microbial origin metabolites and thus their further quality enhancement.

Dataset Information

Data related to the life cycle assessment of 44 artisanally produced french protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses.

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