Costruzione di una filiera per la produzione di farina di mais a basso impatto ambientale

Over the last forty years, economic growth, rising world population and well-being have resulted in widening consumption of goods and services with the consequence that natural renewal of energy resources is no longer enough to reintegrate them. Generally, food production and consumption are among the top three sectors most responsible for the overall environmental impact of human activities. In this thesis, we have developed and analyzed a food chain aimed to produce corn flour for human consumption with low environmental impact, based on grain production carried out with low-input agronomic practices, while drying process energy consumption has been reduced using innovative techniques. In addition, maize flour was obtained by simplifying the transformation process and recyclable materials were used for packaging the final product. An environmental product declaration (EPD), based on ISO 14025 standardization, was also issued for the flour. The LCA was used as a tool for communicating the environmental performance of the product. The agri-environmental indicators (AEI) calculated in order to evaluate the environmental performance of the product were: N, P and K balance, energy utilization and gaseous emissions. The indicators commonly included in the LCA methodology were: Carbon Footprint, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and formation of photochemical oxidants. From the LCA analysis, we saw how low-input agronomic technology is characterized by lesser environmental impacts. Minimum tillage does not reduce real grain productions, if compared to actual productions in traditional systems. However, it is necessary to distinguish actual production from marketable production; the reduction of tillage results in the formation of a higher number of fungal inoculates on the cobs and therefore grain alterations, worsening the qualitative characteristics. The analyzes carried out on the technological and nutritional parameters of corn grain obtained with the low-input agronomic technique did not reveal any significant difference with that obtained through traditional agronomic technique.