Towards a cleaner Mexican tortilla industry: a prospective life cycle assessment approach

• DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2023.02.085
• Publication Date: 2023-04-18T03:40:08Z
• Authors: Samuel Quintero-H...; Juan Felipe Rueda...; Peggy Zwolinski; Damien Evrard; Pasiano Rivas-García

One of the most prevailing foods in Mexican diet is tortilla. Annually, 56.7 and 79.5 kg tortillas are consumed urban rural areas. The objective this study to evaluate environmental impacts from white (WM) yellow maize (YM) Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA) northeastern Mexico, using a prospective life cycle assessment approach (LCA). Four different sources were chosen according their production importance. inventory included national foreign agricultural production, transportation, tortilla-processing plant modules. premise python package Superstructure used transform ecoinvent database v3.8 Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2 (SSP2). It was found that 1 YM WT has climate change indicator 0.731 0.575 CO2 eq, respectively. Tortillas have up 31% less impact than WM. Maize activity with highest impact, representing 65% process. contribution electricity system could be reduced 22% 4% if energetic transition Mexico follows SSP2. This work provides first use LCA towards cleaner tortilla industry. next step should develop fertilization reduction strategies approach.