Contact
Birgir Örn Smárason
Research Group Leader
birgir@matis.is
The project, the Carbon Footprint of Icelandic Food (KÍM), was awarded a grant from the Food Fund last year. summer The aim of the project is to provide consumers, the government and stakeholders in Iceland with reliable, transparent and comparable information about the environmental impact of Icelandic food.
The main focus of the project KÍM is to lay the foundation for the first phase of evaluating and calculating the carbon footprint for Icelandic foods that will be in this phase; milk, beef, lamb and selected vegetables. Calculations will be according to the following; with the methodology of life cycle assessments (e.Life Cycle Assessmennt, LCA) and according to international positions on their design (ISO14040 and ISO 14044) and carbon footprint for products (ISO 14067), the new PEF (Product Environment Footprint) guidelines of the European Union, as well as supporting to guidelines within the food sector for the preparation of environmental product declarations (e. Environmental Product Declaration, EPD) for food.
The results of the project are in three parts: 1) Providing new data on the carbon footprint of the Icelandic foods that will be selected in this project, 2) developing a holistic and coordinated methodology that takes into account international standards, rules and policies and 3) updating the ÍSGEM database which will then also publish the carbon footprint of Icelandic food alongside nutritional information.
Matís, the University of Iceland's Department of Food and Nutrition and Efla Engineering have teamed up to ensure that the methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of Icelandic foods is compatible with the methodology and the requirements of international standards. The goal is for the carbon calculations of Icelandic foods to be comparable to foreign calculations.
Results will be published in ÍSGEM, the Icelandic database on the chemical content of food which Matís owns and runs and is open to everyone.