Survey covers the entire complexity of the chain: from fresh milk production, through transport and industrial processing
A study developed in technical cooperation between (MG), aea (Federal Technological University of Paraná) redefined criteria for measuring the environmental impact of whey and dairy products in the sector. Whey powder stands out today as a strategic input, widely used in the formulation of products ranging from sports nutrition to the baking industry, adding economic value to a component historically treated as waste.
Coordinated by professor Fábio Puglieri, from UTFPR, the project was based on LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), a tool that measures the potential environmental impacts of products and services, in an integrated and unprecedented way in Brazil, expanding the analysis beyond “farm gate”.
According to the Embrapa Gado de Leite analyst, the study covers the entire complexity of the chain: from milk production in naturepassing through transport and industrial processing, until obtaining powdered whey, popularly known as whey protein. “The Brazilian dairy chain has just taken a decisive step towards environmental transparency and productive efficiency”celebrates the analyst.
The main departure of this project in relation to previous studies is its systemic and complete approach. Instead of analyzing the links in isolation, the methodology connected multiple productive steps into a single assessment. “By including transport flows and successive industrial transformations, the project offers a faithful diagnosis of the sector’s environmental performance. It is thus possible to identify where the biggest bottlenecks in greenhouse gas emissions are”says the Embrapa Gado de Leite researcher.
The research was divided into 2 stages. In the 1st, focused on primary production, the milk production systems of Sooro’s supplier base were characterized and typified, considering geographic and technological representativeness criteria. In the 2nd stage, the focus turned to industry and transport, where primary data was collected on the industrialization processes of Sooro and its dairy partners.
One of the pillars of the initiative is the democratization of knowledge, with the results of the project shared with society. The serum ICV (Life Cycle Inventories) were made available on the platform, managed by the (Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology), for free access. “This initiative allows other researchers, industries and government agencies to use real data from Brazilian production for other LCA projects, facilitating decision making”says Thiago Oliveira Rodrigues, researcher at Ibict.
GLOBAL COMMITMENTS
The project is aligned with international commitments, such as the (Global Agenda for Sustainable Development) of the (United Nations) and the , of which Brazil is a signatory, which aims to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. The partnership between Embrapa, Sooro and UTFPR also estimates the delivery of a detailed action plan with recommendations for practices for mitigating GHG (greenhouse gases). These strategies will be fundamental for the dairy sector to not only meet the demands of international markets, but also respond to a consumer who is increasingly attentive to the origin and impact of the food they put on the table.
Historically, whey has represented one of the biggest environmental challenges for the dairy industry. Due to its extremely high organic load (high BOD —Biochemical Oxygen Demand), inadequate disposal of liquid whey in water courses can cause rapid oxygen depletion, leading to the death of fish and the total imbalance of aquatic ecosystems.
Furthermore, whey is rich in lactose and proteins which, if not processed, become a costly environmental liability. “The transformation of this ‘by-product’ into whey powder is not just a profit strategy, but a necessity for operational sustainability”says Tomich. By converting whey into a noble ingredient, the industry mitigates contamination risks and reduces the waste of valuable nutrients that already consumed resources (water, energy and land) to be produced.
WHAT IS LCA?
LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is a methodological technique used to measure the potential environmental impact of a product, process or service throughout its entire existence. It is often called analysis “from cradle to grave”as it examines everything from the extraction of natural raw materials to final disposal, going through all intermediate stages, such as transport, industrial processes and the use of the product.
To carry out an LCA, researchers quantify all inputs (energy, water and raw materials) and outputs (gas emissions, liquid effluents and solid waste) from each phase of the production chain. In the case of the project that brought together Embrapa and Sooro, the analysis included:
- primary production: the impact of livestock farming and milk production;
- transport: fuel consumption and emissions when transporting milk and whey;
- industrial processing: energy consumption and inputs in factories to transform liquid whey into powder.
LCA is carried out in 4 phases, based on standards. The 1st is the definition of objective and scope, which determines what will be analyzed (for example, 1 kg of serum powder) and what boundaries will be established. Next, the Inventory Analysis (ICV) is carried out, that is, the collection of technical data on each resource used and each waste generated.
The 3rd phase is the impact assessment, which translates the inventory data into environmental impact categories, such as carbon footprint (global warming), water consumption or soil acidification. The final phase is data interpretation, when results are analyzed to identify opportunities for improvement and harm reduction.
Unlike a common analysis, which could focus only on specific improvements such as changing packaging or using renewable energy and biofuels, LCA avoids “environmental load displacement”that is, when a solution at one stage generates problems at another. In the production of whey powder, for example, around 85% of total emissions occur in the field.
Therefore, reducing the environmental impact at this initial stage provides a much greater reduction in the final impact of the product than any change to the packaging or the industry’s energy matrix, since these affect a minority portion of emissions.
EMPRABA DAIRY CATTLE
Since 2023, Embrapa Gado de Leite has adopted the LCA methodology to identify the environmental performance of all production phases, analyzing everything from the production of food in the animals’ diet to the cold milk ready to leave the farm. This approach revealed that productive efficiency goes hand in hand with environmental preservation: systems that produce more milk per hectare or per cow tend to have a significantly smaller carbon footprint.
Studies led by Embrapa show that, with adequate management and technology, Brazil has one of the most sustainable milks in the world. The project consolidated the company as a reference in sustainability metrics, serving as the basis for current partnerships that now expand this analysis to the entire industrial chain, as in the case of whey processing.
This text was originally published by on May 19, 2026. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, and has been adapted to the standard of Poder360.
