VIS/NIR SPECTROSCOPY IS A GREEN-TECHNOLOGY? A LCA STUDY ON THE ANALYSIS OF THE OLIVE OIL CONFIRM IT

Vis/NIR spectroscopy has always been used in the food supply chain but with limitations on its true potential. A new feature recently attributed to this technology is “green”, although not yet scientifically proven. With this publication, the research team coordinated by Prof. Riccardo Guidetti, quantified the impacts related to laboratory activities in the olive oil sector. Based on the results obtained, the replacement of chemical analyses with the optical ones will reduce the impact of the execution of the different analysis of 11.360 kg of CO₂eq every year, comparable to a car trip of about 113.000 km, about 3 times the circumference of the earth. The calculated environmental impact for chemical and optical methods showed 36 times less impact for chemical and optical methods.  This gap can increase instructing the optical system to predict other parameters than those analysed or simply by increasing the number of samples analysed.

REFERENCE

Casson, A., Beghi, R., Giovenzana, V., Fiorindo, I., Tugnolo, A., & Guidetti, R. (2019). Visible Near Infrared Spectroscopy as a Green Technology: An Environmental Impact Comparative Study on Olive Oil Analyses. Sustainability, 11(9), 2611. Doi: 10.3390/su11092611.