Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the chocolate supply chain. A literature overview

Chocolate is a product with a long and complex supply chain, involving several raw materials and Countries, such as cocoa beans, which are grown in equatorial Countries as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Ecuador, etc. to be then exported to Europe and US, where it is transformed into chocolate and consumed. Therefore, it is a product in which are involved impacts related to long journeys for transport, as well as to the agricultural phase and the various stages of processing, for which it becomes important to assess its sustainability, and in this context the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a valid tool to carry out studies of environmental compatibility. Therefore, the aim of this work was to carry out a literature overview about the applications of LCA in the chocolate supply chain. The results show that chocolate and cocoa are two commodities whose environmental impacts are little studied and analyzed, although they are two products widely consumed and favorable to health. Among the various types of chocolate, dark one is the most studied, while milk and white chocolate lack studies, despite the supply chain of these two types includes products such as milk and sugar, for which it would be desirable to investigate the environmental effects, especially because of the impacts caused by intensive farming (milk) and deforestation (sugar). The results also show how there is concordance between functional units (1 kg), discordance between calculation methodologies, as well as a lack of studies investigating the social impacts of cocoa and chocolate production (Social Life Cycle Assessment).