Introduction to the special issue “Sustainability Issues of Food Processing and Packaging: the Role of Life Cycle Assessment”

Food demand has increased globally with the increase in global population and will undoubtedly continue to increase in the medium-term future (Bajželj et al. 2014). It is well known that most of the food that is consumed worldwide is the result of a series of processing and packaging steps, prior to distribution and consumption. Food processing contributes some of the largest impacts associated with the entire food supply chain (SC), followed by logistics and packaging: these three steps together account for nearly half of the total energy consumed in the food systems (Monforti-Ferrario et al. 2015). Energy consumption during industrial food processing (from raw material preparation, acquisition and conversion to end-product treatment) encompasses several energy means such as heat (e.g. blanching, drying, preservation), electrical energy (conveyors, pumping), cooling (during processing or storage), lights and some others (Dalsgaard and Abbotts 2003).