Carbon Footprint: An Assessment Approach for the Environmental Impacts of Seafood Production

The seafood industry became progressively interconnected at an international scale, as it is most traded globally. It is now common practice to travel farthest extent of oceans for capturing and the transporting of fishes to market. Therefore refrigeration of seafood products is needed at all stages that substantially increase the energy expenditure. As a result of these factors, carbon footprints of seafood products are necessary to integrate into assessments of their seafood sustainability. Carbon footprint is described as the sum of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions occurred from various stage of a product’s life cycle. This is expressed in terms of CO2 equivalents or Global warming potential (GWP). Primarily four stages of the life cycle of various food products were important. Those include production, processing, transportation and preparation of a product. There are also different advantages and disadvantages of incorporating carbon footprint in seafood industry.