Life cycle assessment as a basis for eco-labelling of fish food products, In Corson MS, van der Werf HMG, editors. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-Food Sector (LCA Food 2012)

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable tool for documenting environmental performance of food products. This is also true for fish food products – a commodity providing income for millions and food for billions of people worldwide (FAO Fisheries Department, 2010) – even though most effort has been invested in the sustainable harvesting of fish resources. The focus on life cycle impact in the food industry is mainly driven by policy makers, consumers and the industry itself on the emerging problem of climate change. In the fish industry, there is an urgent need for strategies, tools and communication with the market that emphasise the whole life cycle of the fish food product from catch to consumption. Taking this into account, carbon footprint declaration (after the planned international ISO14067 and national initiatives for product categories (including seafood), the coming European environmental footprint of products, and the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) - following the ISO14025 standard - are all suitable for communicating results from food products LCAs. The EPD, mainly developed for business to business communication, can also be used for communication to the other important stakeholders, like environmental organizations and consumers. However, the special challenges with declining fish resources need to be taken into account. This contribution presents results from a PhD-project on life cycle assessment of the fish food product with emphasis of the fishing phase (Schau, 2012). The results from the LCA of Atlantic herring landed in Norway and consumed in Germany, shows that the fishing vessel, and especially the diesel use is the main contributor to most impact categories investigated. Besides from presenting the LCA results, the EPD also gives information on the status of the fish stock the product comes from. In addition, this contribution investigates how life cycle environmental impacts from fish food products can be presented in the carbon footprint declarations and in the coming European environmental footprint of products.