Environmental sustainability of mono- and multi-material packaging for cured meat products

This study aims to investigate the environmental performance of two food packaging systems − a mono-material and a conventional multi-material, both with a modified atmosphere − for packing sliced cooked ham through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The functional unit was one unit of packaging that contained 100 g of sliced cooked ham. The assessment also accounted for the environmental impacts of potential food waste (PFW) linked to the shelf life of the packaging system. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate an alternative end-of-life scenario incorporating recycling, in line with the European Plastics Strategy for a circular economy. Regarding the whole food packaging unit, the impact results show that the mono-material packaging system presented the highest environmental impact for five (global warming, ozone formation, terrestrial acidification, mineral resource scarcity and fossil resource scarcity) of the seven impact categories studied. This outcome is primarily attributed to the shorter shelf-life of the mono-material packaging system (21 days) compared to the multi-material system (35 days), which led to increased potential food waste (PFW) and a higher associated environmental footprint. Furthermore, the greater weight of the mono-material packaging (17.6 g) compared to the multi-material packaging (16.4 g) compounded its environmental impact during the packaging life cycle. This study highlights the environmental trade-offs between mono-material and multi-material food packaging systems for cured ham and provide invaluable insights for assessing potential innovative food packaging solutions for market introduction.