ScienceDirect

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2022) 000–000
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2022) 000–000

ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82

6th International Conference on Food and Wine Supply Chain

Green 6th
strategies to reduce
International theonenvironmental
Conference impact
Food and Wine Supply of jam
Chain

Green strategies to reduce production

the environmental impact of jam
production
Salvatore Digiesia, Francesco Facchinia*, Bartolomeo Silvestria
a
Salvatore Digiesi , Francesco Facchini *, Bartolomeo Silvestri
a of Mechanics, Mathematics and
Polytechnic University of Bari - Department a Management, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari
a 70125, Italy

a
Polytechnic University of Bari - Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari 70125, Italy
Abstract

Abstract
Food operations management is the most impactful driver of global environmental challenges, including global warming, climate
change, water pollution and loss of biodiversity. According to recent studies, food production systems efficiency and food loss
are leading
Food causes
operations of environmental
management degradation.
is the most impactful Although many environmental
driver of global methodologieschallenges,
to assess the environmental
including impact of
global warming, food
climate
production
change, have
water alreadyand
pollution beenlossinvestigated, thereAccording
of biodiversity. is an urgent need studies,
to recent to provide
foodenvironmental evaluations
production systems in the
efficiency andfruit
foodsector
loss
are leading
focusing on causes
the mostof widespread
environmental degradation.
industrial Although
production many
processes andmethodologies to assess
their corresponding the environmental
impact. In this context,impact of food
the operations
managementhave
production in jam production
already represents one
been investigated, thereofisthe
an most
urgentcritical
need to issues. Generally,
provide in the most
environmental common
evaluations in jam production
the fruit sector
systems, energy-intensive
focusing treatments,
on the most widespread including
industrial chemical
production substances,
processes and are
theiradopted to extendimpact.
corresponding the shelf-life
In this of the raw
context, thematerials
operationsor
management in jam
finished products, production
allowing represents
to increase one of the
the process most critical
performance issues.
in terms of Generally,
production in the most
levelling, commonmanagement,
inventory jam production and
market policies.
systems, In manytreatments,
energy-intensive cases, thisincluding
approachchemical
compromises the sustainability
substances, are adopted to of treatments,
extend reducing
the shelf-life theraw
of the corresponding
materials or
environmental
finished products,performance.
allowing toThis paperthe
increase aims to analyze
process the most
performance common
in terms processes levelling,
of production for jam production, comparing their
inventory management, and
market policies.
environmental In many cases,
performances and thethis approach
effects compromises
of the related the sustainability strategies
centralized/decentralized of treatments, reducingThe
to be adopted. thepotential
corresponding
impact
categories
environmentalof each process phase
performance. Thishave beenaims
paper assessed. Resultsthe
to analyze ledmost
to identifying
common the jam production
processes for jam from fresh fruit
production, by adopting
comparing theira
decentralized
environmental production
performances strategy,
and the the bestof option
effects considering
the related the environmental
centralized/decentralized performance
strategies under The
to be adopted. production
potentialcapacity
impact
categories of each process phase have been assessed. Results led to identifying the jam production from fresh fruit by adopting a
constraints
decentralized production strategy, the best option considering the environmental performance under production capacity
constraints
© 2022 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
© 2022 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
© 2022 The under
Peer-review Authors. Published by
responsibility ELSEVIER
of the B.V.
scientific committee of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Supply Chain
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee license
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine Supply Chain
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine
Supply Chain
Keywords: Sustainable agri-food; agri-food supply chain; life cycle assessment; Food production; semi-finished product

Keywords: Sustainable agri-food; agri-food supply chain; life cycle assessment; Food production; semi-finished product

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-080-596-3612.

E-mail address: francesco.facchini@poliba.it
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-080-596-3612.
E-mail address: francesco.facchini@poliba.it
2352-1465 © 2022 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review
2352-1465 ©under responsibility
2022 The of the scientific
Authors. Published committee
by ELSEVIER B.V.of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine Supply Chain
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine Supply Chain

2352-1465 © 2022 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 6th International Conference on Food and Wine Supply Chain
10.1016/j.trpro.2022.12.037
 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82 73
2 Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

1. Introduction

In recent years, the world’s population growth rate has significantly increased. In 2019, there were 7,7 billion
global inhabitants, which is estimated to grow to 10 billion by 2050 (UNDESA, 2019). According to Ritchie and
Roser (2020), as the world’s population has expanded, the demand for food, energy and water has seen a rapid
increase. The authors highlighted that the increase in food, energy, and water depends on two effects identified as
‘direct’ and ‘indirect’. The first is due to human consumption; the second depends on the production operations in
the food industry requiring water and energy, generating CO2 emissions, in addition to economic and social impacts.
The global food system, which encompasses production and post-farm activities such as processing and distribution,
is becoming more energy-intensive, with almost a third of food-system emissions coming from energy-related
industrial activities (Ritchie and Roser, 2006). Recent studies showed that the global food system accounts for 18%
of the entire food supply chain (Crippa et al., 2021).
If, on the one hand, there is a problem due to sustainability of the food production systems, on the other hand, the
perishable food products play a crucial role in increasing the operational complexity. The availability of various fruit
and vegetables is restricted to seasonal and regional factors. Nevertheless, consumers' demand requires them all year
long in most countries. This trend led to three possible strategies: import goods from countries where they are in-
season (i); use energy-intensive production methods to produce them year-round (ii); or use refrigeration and other
preservation methods to store them for several months (iii) (Neves et al., 2014). In all cases, the emissions due to
these strategies lead to a significant increase in the natural resources needed and reduce the sustainability of the
industrial processes. There are various preservation methods to provide safe food to consumers (Silvestri et al.,
2021). The process of manufacturing jams, jellies, and marmalades using fruits, sugar and edible acids is considered
one of the oldest food preserving techniques. It is a way of making food stable by increasing the content of soluble
solids (Khan et al., 2019).
Therefore, although the environmental impact of the global food system cannot be neglected to evaluate the
sustainability of the jam production process, the extension of the shelf-life from “consumers” and “industry-side” is
an essential constraint to be ensured. In the case of “industry-side”, fresh fruits or semi-finished products can be
used as raw material in the input of the production process. The semi-finished product allows, starting from the fresh
fruit collected from the field, obtaining a product (to be used to produce jam) that food companies can easily process
and store. The main advantage of the semi-finished product is extending the shelf-life, allowing for better managing
the seasonal harvest peaks and, therefore, distributing the jam production over the whole year (Iannone et al., 2020).
Under the “consumer” perspective, there is no difference since the shelf-life of the final product (i.e., jam) obtained
from fresh fruit or semi-finished product is quite similar. Therefore, the process of producing jam, starting from the
semi-finished product, ensures more flexibility in operations and planning production. Indeed, the shelf-life of semi-
finished products is around one to two years compared to an average shelf-life of fresh fruits of about three to four
weeks, depending on the specific product and preservation technology adopted (Pace and Cefola, 2021). In the case
of fresh apricots, a recent research work extended the shelf-life until 30 days by adopting plastic containers stored at
4°C with 85–90% relative humidity (Gull et al., 2021). In the case of apricot semi-finished products, the shelf-life
can range from 9 to 12 months, adopting low temperature or dried and aseptic treatments (De Marco and Iannone,
2017). Both treatments are considered relatively cheap, quick and easy to apply.
Generally, the demand for jams on the market is led by a seasonal trend, where the higher request is observed in
the winter periods (from November to February). While the most typology of fresh fruits needed to jam production
(e.g., apricots, peaches, cherries, etc.) are mainly harvested in the spring and summer seasons (from May to June).
Therefore, apricot jam production using fresh fruits is temporarily constrained in the harvesting time window, thus
requiring production overcapacity, often obtained using decentralized production strategies. On the contrary, if the
fresh fruit is transformed into a semi-finished product, the apricot jam production can be planned in the 9-12
following months. The semi-finished product allows for levelling the jam production on a longer timescale, avoids
surplus production, ensures more efficient inventory management and reduces the operating costs and the risks due
to food loss and waste. Therefore, the adoption of semi-finished products for jam production in the centralized
production plant is the most used industrial technique nowadays.
Although the advantages of this approach are easily recognizable from an economic and management
perspective, the performance of semi-finished product utilization, in environmental terms, requires more
investigation. The thermal, dried and aseptic treatments needed to transform the fresh fruits into semi-finished
74 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82
Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

products require energy and, in many cases, including the adoption of physical and chemical treatments (Rodolfi et
al., 2022) as well as ionizing radiation (Timakova et al., 2018).
Therefore, consistent with the observations mentioned above, the following subsidiary research questions (RQ)
are raised to fully investigate the research problem: Which are the benefits and limits of mainly food production
systems adopted for apricot jam production (RQ1)? How does the raw material (i.e., semi-finished product or fresh
fruit) impact on the environmental performance of the apricot jam production (RQ2)? Can the innovations of
Industry 4.0 lead to a transformation of traditional processes for jam production, improving the current process
performance, ensuring, at the same time, a more sustainable production (RQ3)?
To investigate this knowledge gap, this paper evaluates the environmental performances of the most common
processes for jam production, and the effect of different production strategies (centralized vs decentralized) is
considered.

2. Environmental impact of jam production

The evaluation of the environmental impacts of jam production has been performed by adopting the Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) methodology. It is based on the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards with a “gate-to-gate”
approach. The LCA and Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) was provided for two production processes, starting from fresh
apricots and semifinished products in the following Sections.

2.1. Goal and Scope

This study's objective consists of comparing the environmental impacts of different strategies to transport and
produce the apricot jam by adopting an LCA method. The first strategy considers the production of jams using fresh
fruit to be treated in a single plant with high production capability or multiple plants with a low production
capability. The second strategy considers the production of jams using semi-finished fruit in a single plant by
adopting a levelled production plan over the year. The boundaries of systems include the phases from the delivery of
harvested apricots to the packaging of the jam product. Therefore, the phases excluded before the jam production are
apricots’ cultivation and harvesting. While the excluded phases, post-jam production, are distribution, storage, sale
and consumption (Table 1).

2.2. Raw fruits supply operations before jam production processes

The proposed research considers the downstream activities following the harvesting. The considered logistic
activities depend on transporting the harvested fruit from the cultivation site to the plant. Consistent with this end, it
is assumed a road transport with a distance to be travelled in a range of 20-50 km; infrastructure constraints have
been neglected. A lorry with a size of 16-32 metric tons is used apricot jam. In contrast, a truck of 40 tons is used for
transporting the fresh fruit to be processed into semi-finished products. In both cases, the emissions are referred to
Euro 5 European standard.

2.3. Jam production processes

In the production of jam with fresh apricots, different steps are considered: i) delivery of the harvested apricots to
the plant where the fruit will be processed; ii) input selection and storage at a controlled temperature of
approximately 3 °C; iii) washing of the apricots to remove impurities; iv) pitting of fruit mixing with sugar and
cooking of product to obtain the jam from heat treatment; v) bottling of the jam in jars; vi) packaging of finished
products; vii) management of waste generated by product packaging. The phases considered in the processing of
apricot jam are shown in Figure 1.
 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82 75
4 Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

STORAGE, PACKAGING
HARVESTED WASHING APRICOT WASTE
APRICOTS AND PITTING JAM MANAGEMENT

DELIVERY TO MIXING BOTTLING

THE PLANT WITH SUGAR AND
AND PACKAGING
COOKING

Fig. 1. Jam production process with fresh apricots.

The second option to produce apricot jam consists of semi-finished fruit adoption. The methods for making semi-
finished products from fresh fruit include deep freezing, ohmic aseptic treatment, and low-pressure superheated
steam drying with far-infrared radiation (LPSSD-FIR) treatment (De Marco and Iannone, 2017). According to De
Marco and Iannone (2017), this last treatment is the least impactful from an environmental point of view. The
LPSSD-FIR treatment consists of a slow drying process that can be coupled with far-infrared radiation to reduce the
drying time. The freshly picked apricots are transported to the plant. After passing the quality control, needed to
classify the type of product, the degree of ripeness, defects, damage, and traces of pests or pathogens, are stored at a
controlled temperature of about 3 °C. Apricots that fail quality control are composted. The next step consists of
washing with water to remove dust and other elements. Then a calibration phase is performed for the classification
by shape and size before of the pitting phase. The fruits are crossed by a jet of hot water mixed with caustic soda at
80 °C to easily remove the outer skin with a peeling operation. An automatic cutting machine transforms the fruit
into cubes, slices, cloves or flakes. The apricots are first blanched in hot water at 90 °C for 90 seconds to avoid
reactions, remove air in the tissues, and then sent to the drying stage. The main equipment of the LPSSD-FIR
treatment is a stainless-steel drying vessel composed of a steam tank that receives the steam from a boiler, a vacuum
pump used to maintain the vacuum in the drying chamber and a far-infrared radiator. The steam temperature is 80
°C, and the vessel pressure is 7 kPa. Finally, the dried apricots are packed in polyethene bags and stored at room
temperature inboxes. A simplified scheme of the phases required to produce the semi-finished apricots from fresh
apricots is shown in Figure 2.

HARVESTED QUALITY SORTING AND PACKAGING WASTE

APRICOTS CONTROL CUBING LPSSD-FIR STORAGE MANAGEMENT

DELIVERY TO STORAGE, BLANCHING PACKAGING SEMI-FINISHED FRUIT

THE PLANT WASHING AND
PITTING

Fig. 2. Semi-finished apricots production process.

In the production of jam with semi-finished apricots, different steps are considered: i) mixing semi-finished apricots
with sugar; ii) cooking of product to obtain the jam through heat treatment; iii) bottling the jam in jars; iv) packaging
finished products; v) management of waste generated by product packaging.
Figure 3 describes the phases considered in the processing of apricot jam with a semi-finished fruit, included for
the environmental evaluation with the LCA method.
76 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82
Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

SEMI-FINISHED PACKAGING WASTE

APRICOTS APRICOT JAM MANAGEMENT

MIXING WITH BOTTLING AND

SUGAR AND PACKAGING
COOKING

Fig. 3. Jam production processes with semi-finished apricots.

2.4. Life Cycle Inventory

According to the steps described in the previous sub-section, the environmental assessment has been conducted
based on the considered systems for jam production. Data used for the LCI were collected from existing scientific
studies assessing the production of semi-finished apricots with LPSSD-FIR (De Marco and Iannone, 2017). The data
have been adapted and re-designed according to the jam production processes included in the Agribalyse ® database
library, assuming the production site in Italy, as shown in table 1.

Table 1. Jam production strategy, process details and assumptions.

Jam Strategy Production
Fresh fruit
Semi-finished fruit through
LPSSD-FIR treatment
Process Details and assumptions
Apricots transported to the plant Transport by truck, lorry 16-32 metric ton, EURO5, considering a
distance in the range of 20-50 km
Electric Energy Italian energy mix low voltage
Storage T = 3° C, t= 72h, electric energy supply
Washing Electric energy and water supply
Pitting Electric energy supply
Mixing with sugar Sugar supply at global level
Cooking Electric energy supply and Thermal energy supply are produced by
natural gas and rape oil
Bottling Electric energy and materials supply
Packaging Electric energy, supporting materials and components supply
Apricots transported to the plant Transport by truck, 40 t from Caserta (CE) EURO5, considering a
distance in the range of 20-50 km
Electric Energy Italian energy mix low voltage
Storage T = 3° C, t= 72h, electric energy supply
Washing and calibration Electric energy and water supply
Decoring and Peeling Electric energy, water and sodium hydroxide supply
Sorting and cubing Electric energy supply
Blanching T = 90° C, t= 90s, electric energy and water supply
LPSSD-FIR treatment T = 80° C, P = 7 kPa, t= 8400s, electric energy and water supply
Packaging Electric energy, supporting materials and components supply
Plant sterilization T = 120° C, t= 2700s, electric energy, nitrogen and water supply
Storage Room temperature
Mixing with sugar Sugar supply at global level
Cooking Electric energy supply and Thermal energy supply are produced by
natural gas and rape oil
 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82 77
6 Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

Bottling Electric energy and materials supply

Packaging Electric energy, supporting materials and components supply

The LCA study was developed using OpenLCA 1.10.3 software developed by GreenDelta © 2022. The
computational process was performed on a MacBook equipped with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU and 8 GB RAM.
The average computational runtime was about 1 minute. The Agribalyse® database was used as the primary source
to identify the background data. The information on the processes and material flows required for the assessment
were developed considering the features of the equipment adopted and assuming every unit process in the system
boundary of the specific location of the jam production.

2.5. Life Cycle Impact Assessment

The impact assessment method selected in the LCA study is ReCiPe midpoint H v.13, and the impact categories
considered are shown in tab. 2. The functional unit assumed for the assessment is 1 kg of apricot jam (packaging
weight not included). The results achieved for the two jam production treatments are shown in the tab. 2, and the
comparison of the impacts is graphically reported in figure 1.

Table 2. Impacts assessment of jam production with fresh fruit and semi-finished fruit.
Impact category Unit Jam production with Jam production with semi-
fresh fruit finished fruit
Climate Change CC kg CO2eq 1.177 2.76
Human Toxicity HT kg 1,4DCB eq 0.267 0.642
Photochemical Oxidant Formation POF kg NMVOC 4.04 E-03 0.012
Ozone Depletion OD kg CFC-11 eq 1.29 E-07 7.20 E-07
Urban Land Occupation ULO m2 yr 0.014 0.022
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity TET kg 1,4DCB eq 2.75 E-03 4.35 E-03
Terrestrial Acidification TA kg SO2 eq 0.013 0.021
Water Depletion WD m3 water eq 0.031 0.103
Metal Depletion MD kg Fe eq 0.014 0.097
Marine Eutrophication ME kg N eq 2.84 E-03 8.82 E-03
Fossil Fuel Depletion FD kg oil eq 0.337 0.758
Ionizing Radiation IR kg U235 eq 0.134 0.391
Freshwater Eutrophication FE kg P eq 2.7 E-04 5.78 E-04
Marine Ecotoxicity MET kg 1,4DCB eq 2.71 E-03 0.029
Particulate Matter Formation PMF kg PM10 eq 3.12 E-03 6.19 E-03
Agricultural Land Occupation ALO m2 yr 0.509 0.862
Freshwater Ecotoxicity FET kg 1,4DCB eq 2.65 E-03 0.033
Natural Land Transformation NLT m2 4.93 E-05 2.37 E-04

The treatment, including the semi-finished fruit for the jam production, causes higher emissions in terms of all
midpoint categories. Although this first result was expected, since adding an extra process needed to transform the
fresh fruit into semi-finished requires energy and matters, the evidence of the impact assessed results significantly.
For all impact categories considered, an average increase of the jam produced with the semi-finished product was
evaluated, compared to jam produced with fresh fruit of about 62.53 %. Similarly, the impact category “freshwater
ecotoxicity” identified a higher gap between jam produced with the semi-finished product compared to jam
produced with fresh fruit (about 91.97 %). On the contrary, a lower gap between the two treatments was identified
for the impact category “urban land occupation” (about 36.36 %).

3. Numerical case study

The use of fresh fruit in jam production requires plants with higher production capability compared to the plants
adopting semi-finished food; alternatively, the production should be decentralized on more plants. In this case,
logistics activities have to be considered in the evaluation of the environmental performance of the process. A
numerical case study has been developed to evaluate the environmental impact of apricot jam production with fresh
fruit. Differently from the analysis in Section 2, in the case study considered, two production plants located in
78 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82
Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 7

different places were assumed to produce apricot jam with fresh fruit. Therefore, the environmental evaluation
includes the impact of the production process and of the transportation and logistics activities required to handle the
fresh fruit from harvesting areas to jam production plants.

3.1. Description of the hub and spoke supply chain network

The jam production of a well-known Italian company with two plants located in the north and south of Italy (i.e.,
Verona and Luogosano, respectively) are considered. The plants have the same production capability, and the only
use of fresh apricots for jam production was assumed. Around 80% of the national apricots’ cultivation is located in
five areas of Italy: four in the south (i.e., Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, and Sicily) and one in the north (i.e., Emilia-
Romagna), as shown in Fig. 4. The logistics flows have been considered adopting the “hub and spoke” model
(Maiyar and Thakkar, 2019), assuming a full truckload (maximum load of 16-32 metric tons, euro 5), and
considering a fixed-route transit system. According to a hub and spoke approach, the harvested fruit will be
managed at the regional level from one or few logistic warehouses located in a given place. In the first path stage,
smaller vehicles are adopted to transport the fresh apricots from the cultivation site to the regional warehouse. The
vehicles assumed are more suitable to travel on dirt roads in the closeness of the countryside. In the second stage of
the path, truck vehicles are adopted to transport the fresh apricots from the regional warehouse to the plant. These
vehicles are more suitable for travelling on motorways.
An optimized strategy to reduce the travelled distance consists of transporting fresh fruit harvested in the south
areas to the plant in Luogosano. The distances from south areas and Luogosano plants are about 80 km, 120 km and
680 km for Campania, Basilicata and Sicily, respectively. The available data shows that the production capability of
Luogosano is not sufficient to process the entire amount of fresh fruit harvested in the south area. Therefore, the
excess fresh fruit harvested in these areas and the total fruit harvested in Emilia-Romagna are transported and
processed to the plant located in Verona. In this case, the distances from Emilia-Romagna, Campania and Apulia to
Verona plant are about 145 km, 700 km and 815 km, respectively.

Harvesting Region

Orchards

Transportation flow

Processors facility

Fig. 4. Transport of apricots from harvesting area to jam plants adopting the hub and spoke model.
 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82 79
8 Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

According to the assumed supply strategy, the total amount of fresh fruit harvested in the five areas represents
82.3% of total Italian cultivation. The numerical case study conducted assumes that the total amount of fresh fruit
harvested in Sicily and Basilicata is transported to the Luogosano plant. Similarly, the total amount of fresh fruit
harvested in Emilia-Romagna and Apulia is transported to Verona. The 35.6% of the fresh fruit cultivated in
Campania is transported to Verona, and the remaining amount is processed at the Luogosano plant (table 3). The
data assumed are consistent with the production capability of both plants.

Table 3. The total amount of fresh fruits transported from single areas to the plants
Areas Harvesting percentage of Normalized data on the Percentage of fresh fruit of each area processed into a
the total Italian production five areas considered single plant
(total = 82.3%) (total = 100.0%)
Verona Luogosano (AV)
Campania 28.5 % 34.63 % 35.60% 64.40%
Emilia Romagna 24.7 % 30.01 % 100.00% 0.00%
Basilicata 18.0 % 21.87 % 0.00% 100.00%
Apulia 6.3 % 7.66 % 100.00% 0.00%
Sicily 4.8 % 5.83 % 0.00% 100.00%

3.2. Life Cycle Impact Assessment

The results of the LCA conducted for the numerical case study were compared to those of the production of jam
with fresh fruit or semifinished fruit already assessed in Section 2, where it was assumed that plants were located in
an area very close to the same cultivation area (distance between 20-50 km). In particular, the environmental impact
assuming a decentralized jam production (Section 3) increases compared to the case of plants located close to the
harvesting area due to transport emissions (Section 2). Nevertheless, the results showed that the environmental
impact of adopting the hub and spoke model is lower than jam production with semi-finished fruit in a plant located
in an area very close to the same cultivation area. Consistent with these results, the apricot jam production with fresh
fruit adopting a decentralized jam production shows an increase of about 10.36% of all impact categories, compared
to the case where the fresh fruit is processed in a plant located in the same cultivation area. The higher gap was
identified considering the impact category “urban land occupation” with about 34.57%, while the lower gap was
identified for the impact category “agricultural land occupation” with about 0.56%. On the contrary, apricot jam
production with fresh fruit adopting a decentralized jam production is more sustainable compared to semi-finished
products processed in a plant located in an area very close to the same cultivation area. In this case, the
environmental impact decreases by about 58.84% for all impact categories. The higher gap was identified
considering the impact category “freshwater ecotoxicity” with about 91.58%, while the lower gap was identified for
“urban land occupation” with about 14.36% (Fig. 5).
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
CC HT POF OD ULO TET TA WD MD ME FD IR FE MET PMF ALO FET NLT
Jam Production with fresh fruit Jam Production with semi-finished fruit

Fig. 5. Impact of the jam production processes with fresh fruit into two plants and with semi-finished fruit in a single plant.
80 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82
Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 9

4. Results and Discussion

The analysis of the impact assessment with the LCA method for the production processes of jam with both fresh
apricot and semi-finished apricot shows a double and, in some cases, even triple convenience between the two raw
materials. From an environmental point of view, the data show that the use of fresh fruit in the food industry is more
sustainable than semi-finished fruit. Still, the main disadvantages are related to the period of perishable nature. Fresh
fruit can be processed for a few weeks; on the contrary, the semi-finished product makes it possible to extend the
use of the raw material in the food processes for a very long period (months or even years). This is an essential
benefit in terms of operations planning. The use of fresh fruit needs systems of greater capacity able to process the
production of jam during the harvesting period of fruit.
Moreover, the adoption of fresh fruit led to scheduling the jam production in a very short time requiring high
resources in terms of packaging processes, stocking facilities and logistics management. Consistently with this
approach, there will be a peak of finished products in the warehouse in the first months, which will inevitably affect
the sales strategies to reduce the yearly average stock and related costs. On the contrary, a jam production based on
semi-finished products can be scheduled overtime according to customer need and with a low stock out risk (RQ1).
In both cases, offline scheduling requires lower computational efforts than online scheduling (Dotoli et al., 2014).
From an environmental perspective, it was proved that the benefits of jam production with fresh apricots are
significantly higher than semi-finished fruit obtained with the LPSSD-FIR treatment. In the case of fresh fruit, a
further evaluation with a numerical case study was conducted, assuming a road transport of the fresh apricots from
the harvest location to inter-regional plants, where the jam can be produced. This assumption promoted a new
sustainable strategy aiming to distribute the jam production of apricot on more plants throughout the country to
reduce the issues due to operational planning. It is very interesting to note that the environmental impact due to road
transport is neglected compared with the two processes' environmental performance, as shown in Fig. 6. In other
words, whilst assuming to transport large amounts of fresh apricots at a higher distance (i.e., within 1000 km) by a
full truckload, the jam production results less impactful of the process with the semi-finished product (RQ2).
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
CC HT POF OD ULO TET TA WD MD ME FD IR FE MET PMF ALO FET NLT
Production of Jam Logistic activities

Fig. 6. Impact of logistic activities and jam production processes with fresh fruit of the numerical case study.

The growing market demand for quality products of controlled origin makes it possible to push on the use of
fresh fruit to be processed immediately. The idea to provide guarantee certificates proving the use of fresh fruit with
a low environmental impact, if compared to industrial food processes by semi-finished products, can become an
added value for consumers. Several examples are developing in the field of food prepared with the use of fresh
seasonal products, such as in the preparation of artisanal ice creams. In the food industry, the use of fresh products is
a significant challenge, so it is necessary to investigate the issues and opportunities generated by sustainable food
production with seasonal fresh fruit and vegetable. ICT and blockchain technologies can significantly improve
communication with consumers through certificates allowing to track the production stage. Consistent with this end
are available synchronized systems for monitoring the process and identifying information on the product’s status
(Coviello et al., 2022). The goal consists of producing increasingly sustainable foods from an environmental
 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82 81
10 Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

perspective. Consistent with this end, the application of IoT technologies and Industry 4.0 innovations could
simplify the de-centralized production of the jam, improve the logistical and production performance, as well as
ensure a levelled plan and production flexibility (RQ3). Additionally, an economic evaluation based on price
policies and marketing strategies should be used in the first production period to decrease the finished products
stocked in the warehouse, reducing the corresponding costs.

5. Conclusions and next steps

This paper assessed the manufacturing and environmental aspects of apricot jam production. The evaluation
proved that the use of fresh apricot to produce jams is more environmentally sustainable than semi-finished fruit,
although the time window to transform fresh apricot into jams is just three weeks. Consequently, operation planning
problems will arise, and it will be necessary to decentralize the production of more plants throughout the country.
Therefore, new strategies aiming to treat the food more sustainably are required. In this regard, it is necessary to
evaluate logistics and management actions to improve the current industrial processes in environmental terms,
ensuring an effective and flexible production. In particular, the use of fresh apricot should be preferred to semi-
finished apricot for jam production. Consistent with this end, it is needed to promote the transport of fresh apricots
in plants able to process immediately, increasingly resorting to green transport units. Similarly, the proposed
approach could be applied to evaluate the food supply chain and the environmental impacts of other kinds of semi-
finished products (e.g., vegetables in the catering industry) considering the related logistic facilities. The study
represents a preliminary evaluation of the environmental management of the industrial process of transforming and
preserving food. Further assessment will be needed to identify the most suitable strategies to design a more
sustainable food supply chain. In this perspective, new logistic and operation strategies as well as new innovative
devices will support the change of the industrial paradigms in the agri-food area, considered one of the main
challenges to be faced in a new circular economy vision.

Acknowledgements

This research work is part of the activities carried out in the context of the REFIN project (Research for
Innovation) funded by the European Union on POR Puglia 2014-2020 (Project REFIN – 7A578B49).

References

Coviello, G. Florio, A. Avitabile, G. Talarico, C. Roveda, J.M. Distributed Full Synchronized System for Global Health Monitoring based on
FLSA, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst. XX (2022) 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/tbcas.2022.3173586.
Crippa, M. Solazzo, E. Guizzardi, D. Monforti-Ferrario, F. Tubiello, F.N. Leip, A. Food systems are responsible for a third of global
anthropogenic GHG emissions, Nat. Food. 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9.
De Marco, I. Iannone, R. Production, packaging and preservation of semi-finished apricots: A comparative Life Cycle Assessment study, J. Food
Eng. 206 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.03.009.
Dotoli, M. Epicoco, N. Falagario, M. Turchiano, B. Cavone, G. Convertini, A. A Decision Support System for real-time rescheduling of railways,
in: 2014 Eur. Control Conf. ECC 2014, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1109/ECC.2014.6862177.
Gull, A., Bhat, N., Wani, S.M. Masoodi, F.A. Amin, T. Ganai, S.A. Shelf life extension of apricot fruit by application of nanochitosan emulsion
coatings containing pomegranate peel extract, Food Chem. 349 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129149.
Iannone, R. Riemma, S. De Marco, I. A comparative life cycle assessment study on conservation of semi-finished peaches, Chem. Eng. Trans. 79
(2020). https://doi.org/10.3303/CET2079032.
Khan, K.A. Goyal, M.R. Kalne, A.A. Processing of Fruits and Vegetables: from farm to fork, 2019.
Maiyar, L.M. Thakkar, J.J. Environmentally conscious logistics planning for food grain industry considering wastages employing multi objective
hybrid particle swarm optimization, Transp. Res. Part E Logist. Transp. Rev. 127 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2019.05.006.
Neves, T. Drohomeretski, E. Gouvea Da Costa, S.E. De Lima, E.P. Sustainable operations management: Practices and measures in the food
industry, Int. J. Data Mining, Model. Manag. 6 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJAOM.2014.066827.
Pace, B. Cefola, M. Innovative preservation technology for the fresh fruit and vegetables, Foods. 10 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10040719.
82 Salvatore Digiesi et al. / Transportation Research Procedia 67 (2022) 72–82
Salvatore Digiesi / Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 11

Ritchie, H. Roser, M. Environmental Impacts of Food Production, Our World Data. (2006).
Rodolfi, M. Rinaldi, M. Caligiani, A. Paciulli, M. Lolli, V. Chiancone, B. Ganino, T. Hop green sprouts preservation and valorisation as semi-
finished and finished products: impact of different treatments on microstructural, physical and chemical traits, Eur. Food Res. Technol.
(2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-021-03956-y.
Silvestri, B. Facchini, F. Mossa, G. Mummolo, G. A Systematic Literature Review on strategies to reduce the Food Loss and Waste, in: Proc.
Summer Sch. Fr. Turco, 2021.
Timakova, R.T. Tikhonov, S.L. Tikhonova, N. V. Gorlov, I.F. Effect of various doses of ionizing radiation on the safety of meat semi-finished
products, Foods Raw Mater. 6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.21603/2308-4057-2018-1-120-127.
UNITED NATIONS NEW (UNDESA), World population prospects 2019, 2019. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12283219.