Environmental impact of processed tomato in France and in Turkey

The FLONUDEP project carried out an environmental LCA « from cradle to grave » of processed tomatoes made in France and Turkey. We compared the environmental impact of tomato sauce made in France with French tomato paste, with that made with Turkish tomato paste. Data have been collected through surveys among a sample of farms (France=4; Turkey=4), processing plants (France= 2; Turkey=4), logistic organization (France=2), 1 supermarket and consumers (n=800), Findings show that French tomato sauce is slightly less impacting than the Turkish one for GHG emissions and human toxicity, whereas results are similar for eutrophication. Critical points are mainly packaging, energy used and steam production at plant level, fertilization and phytosanitary treatments at agricultural level, and finally, consumer behavior (shopping by car) and packaging recycling.