Introduction:

As one of the best-loved beverages in the world, coffee’s widespread consumption has given rise to the popularization of many products designed to enhance the consumer experience. Flavor enhancing products such as creamers have gained popularity over the past decades, and non-dairy creamers have become a popular choice in the past few years. This project will take a closer look at the life cycle analysis of creamers made from soy milk, almond milk, and cow milk. We will quantify the CO₂ emissions each product produces in the material extraction stage, and the product that outputs the least amount of emissions is going to be deemed the most environmentally friendly.  

 

Dairy Creamer

 

Half and half is simply a mixture of equal parts whole milk and light cream, typically used as a coffee creamer or as a substitute for heavier creams.  This project will analyse the life cycle stages of Clover’s Organic Farms Half & Half dairy creamer (Figure 1). The processing of milk into dairy creamer will be outlined below in the life stage flowchart (Figure 2).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Cycle Flow Diagram:

Figure 2: Dairy creamer life cycle stages flowchart

 

Life Cycle Stages:

Raw Material Extraction:  Cows are typically milked twice a day using mechanical means and transported to a holding tank to be picked up by a tanker truck and transported to the processing plant.

Milk and creamer processing:  Milk brought from the dairies is pumped into refrigerated tanks to begin processing.  Milk destined to become half and half is first pasteurized using the HTST (high temperature short time) method.  Next, the milk is put through a separator to separate the cream from the skim portion of the milk.  To make half and half whole milk is mixed with cream to create a fat content of about 12 percent.  The half and half is then homogenized to reduce the size of the fat molecules to prevent them from coalescing, allowing for a consistent, homogenous product. The finished product is then packaged in cartons and ready for shipping.

Transportation: Each carton must travel approximately 241 miles in refrigerated trucks from the manufacturing plant in Petaluma, CA to Arcata CA.  They must then be stored in refrigerated rooms in supermarkets.

Product Use: Milk must be kept is a refrigerated space and used within two to three weeks.  It is consumed as a beverage or used as an ingredient in cooking.

Disposal and Recycling: Unused milk is typically poured down the sink or thrown into the trash.  Being a biological product it will quickly be broken down and posed no threat to the environment. The milk carton can be recycled back into the system but if it is disposed of in a landfill will take a very long time to decompose due to its plastic content.

 

Material Extraction Quantitative Analysis:

CO₂ Emissions:

Methane Emissions:

Total Emissions

 

 

 

Almond Creamer

 

Figure 3: Califia Farms Almond Creamer http://www.califiafarms.com/products/coffee-creamer/

Almonds are third in California’s top ten valued commodities in 2015, taking in 5.9 billion dollars in revenue (California Department of Food and Agriculture, 2015). They are used to produce many difference kind of products, such as coffee creamer, milk, and butter. Almond milk and creamers are becoming a popular part of today’s breakfast and coffee culture due to their reputation as being more environmentally friendly than dairy. But are they really better choice for the environment? This project will analyze the life cycle of Califia Farms Almond Milk Coffee Creamer (Figure 3). An overview of the almond creamer's life stages can be seen in Figure 4 below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Cycle Flow Diagram:

Figure 4: Almond creamer life cycle stages flowchart

 

Life Cycle Stages:

After the almonds are de-hulled, de-shelled and cleaned they are transported from the farm to the creamery.  The shorter the distance you have to drive to get to the creamery the less emissions and costs are being generated in the process, so it is more environmentally friendly if your farm is near the place where you are producing the products you are making. Anytime you transfer a product from one place to another you will be producing CO₂; from the diesel trucks that is bad for the environment. After you transport the almonds from the farm to the creamery that’s when the second part of the production phase starts. The creamer production is first, re-cleaning the almonds from the truck drive to the creamery, then the soaking of the almonds in water, after the almonds are soaked for 24 to 48 hours, the crushing up of those almonds with water in a food processes then filtering that mixture and adding a few ingredients will give you almond creamer. The process of this and what

The product is then transported from the creamery to the stores where is sold, again that process’s uses diesel fuel and gives off emissions depending on how far the stores are in which it is being sold. After delivered to the stores, the product sits on shelves waiting for you to buy it, using shelf space, electricity costs and employee costs in order for it to be sold in that store. Then after a customer buys the creamer it is then transported again back home where it used.  Finally after the creamer is used it gets put in either the recycling or the waste bin where a waste management truck picks it up and it gets transported to a landfill or recycling center.

 

Material Extraction Quantitative Analysis:

 

 

 

Soy Creamer

 

 

Figure 5: Wildwood's Soy Creamer http://www.wildwoodfoods.com/

At a production rate of 230,952,636 tons per year (Business Insider 2011) soy crops have gained a reputation for being detrimental for the environment, as land clearing for crop growth is largely responsible for deforestation worldwide. It is estimated that 85% of the soy harvested worldwide is crushed into oil and animal feed (WWF n.d.). The remaining 15% is used to make a variety of foods such as sauces, desserts, meat substitutes, tofu, and soy milk. The product analyzed in this project is Wildwood’s 8oz Soymilk Creamer (Figure 5). The processing of soybeans to produce soy creamer will be outlined below, in the qualitative analysis portion of this report. An overview of the creamer’s life cycle can be seen in the flow diagram below (Figure 6).

 

 

 

 

 

Life Cycle Flow Diagram:

Figure 6: Soy Creamer Life Cycle Flowchart

 

Life Cycle Stages:

Soy Cultivation and Harvest: Once the land has been cleared, the materials required for this stage include the soy seeds; diesel for the planters that get the seed in the ground; water, fertilizers, and herbicides for plant growth, diesel used to transport the chemical sprayer, energy to operate the chemical sprayer, diesel used by the combine to harvest the soybeans (North Carolina Soybeans Producers Association 2014). Assumptions seen in Table 1 will be used to calculate the CO₂ emissions in this stage of the life cycle. Emissions of CO₂ from the diesel used to plant crops, fertilizer and herbicide runoff, and soil contamination are the outputs at this stage.

Soymilk Processing: This stage includes the following processes: de-hulling of the soybeans, which involves the steaming of the beans to split them in half and separate them from the hull; cooking the soybeans in high pressure to invalidate an enzyme to make them more digestible to humans; rough grinding to perform a preliminary grinding of the cooked soybeans with added water; fine grinding to decrease the size of the soybean particles to the finest possible; extraction and centrifuge to extract the milk from the seeds and separate the large pieces of insoluble fiber that remain; blending of the milk with added ingredients, vitamins, and natural flavors; sterilization in high temperatures to kill bacteria and germs; homogenization to break down fat particles and even out the consistency (How Products are Made n.d.). Dirt, hull, and insoluble fiber from the beans and CO₂ emissions from the energy needed to operate the machinery are the outputs at this stage.

Packaging and Transport: Some soy creamers require aseptic packaging which involve machines packaging the milk without exposing it to the air. Wildwood’s soy creamer is packaged traditionally. The newly packaged milk is sent to an automatic sorter which then places it on a case and on a pallet (How Products are Made n.d.).  Disposal of defective material and CO₂ emissions from the energy required to operate the machinery are the outputs at this stage.

Product Sale and Use: Soy milk and creamer that has been packaged aseptically and pasteurized at higher temperatures do not require refrigeration (Milk Unleashed 2014). Others that are packaged traditionally and pasteurized at traditional temperatures require refrigeration. Both require refrigeration after opened. CO₂ emissions, disposal of product remnants into drains, disposal of expired product, and CO₂ emissions from the energy required to refrigerate and light the stores are the outputs at this stage.

Disposal and Recycling: Package is disposed in residential trash cans and transported to landfills or recycling centers. Leftover product is typically poured down the drain. CO₂ emissions and CH₄ emissions from the decomposing product in landfills, as well as emissions from the transportation and operation of machinery are the outputs at this stage.

Material Extraction Quantitative Analysis:

Table 5: Table of assumptions made to calculate CO2 emissions for the material extraction stage of soy creamer life cycle.

 

 

 

The amount of CO₂ per half pint of creamer will be calculated assuming that the planter, the tractor, and the combine each consume equal amounts of diesel per acre. Under this and other assumptions (Table 5), the value calculated above can be multiplied by five to obtain the total amount of emitted CO₂ per half pint of soy creamer in the material extraction life cycle stage, under the assumption that it takes two planter trips, 1 chemical sprayer, and 2 combine trips to complete the crop growth process --and that they all use the same amount of diesel.

 

Conclusion:

Table 6: Summary table comparing the life cycles of dairy, almond, and soy creamers

 

Considering the assumptions made regarding farm sizes, crop yield, emissions produced by each cow, we found that Wildwood’s Soy Creamer is the most environmentally friendly due to producing the least amount of CO₂ emissions during the material extraction stage of its life cycle (Table 5). In future work, we will analyze the other life stages quantitatively to find out which is the overall winner of the environmentally friendly challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Agriculture Fact Sheet. National Ag Day. (2015). Retrieved from   http://www.agday.org/media/factsheet.php

Almond production
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2CMxHPi9j0. Perf. Bella Viva Orchards. 2010. Youtube.

Almond Farm Size
"With Fewer Acres, More Mechanization: California Leads Spain in Almond Production, Exports to World." California Agriculture Online. University of California, Nov. 1993. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Diesel Consumption
Frisby, James C. "Fuel Requirement Estimates for Selected Field Operations." G1208. University of Missouri, 1993. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Ebner, P. (2008). Dairy Facts. Retrieved December 1, 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/faen/dairy facts.html

Environmental Protection Agency (2015, November 14). Overview of Greenhouse Gases. Retrieved December 2, 2015. Retrieved from http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.htm
Frequently Asked Questions. Laura Soybeans. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.laurasoybeans.com/faqs.asp

"Fuel Requirement Estimates for Selected Field Operations." G1208. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
Fuel Requirement Estimates for Selected Field Operations. University of Missouri. (2015). Retrieved from http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G1208

Gallary, C. (2014, July 21). What Is Half-and-Half? - Ingredient Intelligence. Retrieved December 2, 2015, from http://www.thekitchn.com/what-is-halfandhalf-ingredient-intelligence-205959

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Car Vehicle. EPA. (May 2014). Retrieved from http://www3.epa.gov/otaq/climate/documents/420f14040a.pdf

Growing Soybeans. North Carolina Soybeans Producers Association. (2014). Retrieved from http://ncsoy.org/media-resources/growing-soybeans/

Half and Half. (2015). Retrieved December 1, 2015, Retrieved from: http://www.cloverpetaluma.com/products/organic-dairy/organic-milk-and-cream/half-and-half/

How to Make Soymilk. (2015). Retrieved December 1, 2015, Retrieved from: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Soy-Milk.html

How to make almond creamer
Kare. "How to Make Almond Milk Coffee Creamer." Kitchen Treaty. N.p., 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.

Ishler, V. (2008, May 1). Carbon, Methane Emissions and the Dairy Cow (Dairy Cattle Nutrition). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from
http://extension.psu.edu/animals/dairy/nutrition/nutrition-and-feeding/diet-formulation-and-evaluation/carbon-methane-emissions-and-the-dairy-cow

Milk Processing. (2015). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from
http://www.ift.org/knowledge-center/learn-about-food-science/become-a-food-scientist/introduction-to-the-food-industry/lesson-1/milk-processing.aspx

Soy Facts and Data. WWF. Retrieved from http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/facts/

Ten Most Important Crops in the World. Business Insider. (2011, September 09). Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/10-crops-that-feed-the-world-2011-9?op=1

UHT Milk vs. Pasteurization. Milk Unleashed. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.milkunleashed.com/shelf-safe-milk/aseptic-packaging-uht-milk.html

U.S. Commercial Bushel Sizes. Russ Rowlett.  (2001). Retrieved from https://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html

USDA projects record 2014 production. Corn and Soybean Digest (2014). Retrieved from http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/blog/usda-projects-record-2014-crop-production

United States Department of Agriculture
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/Fruits_and_Nuts/201405almpd.pdf