Table 2.
Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of LCA of food.
| No | Stage | Non-Conformity | What Might Occur? | Potential Failure Effect? | Severity (S) | Occurrence (O) | Detection (D) | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scope and goal | Inadequate system boundaries | LCA does not include all product stages | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 5 | 3 | 1 | 15 |
| 2 | Scope and goal | Inconsistent functional units | Calculation and interpretation of the results in wrong functional units | No possibility of comparing results throughout the food supply chain and benchmark with other | 4 | 3 | 2 | 24 |
| 3 | Scope and goal | Inappropriate data collection method | Inadequate collection methods (measurement, estimation, combination, re-calculation, …) | Wrong/un-useful data collected | 3 | 3 | 2 | 18 |
| 4 | Scope and goal | Low level of data quality | Primary/secondary sources, time related dimension (data for specific time periods), consistency of data quality in the entire life-cycle | Bad results during validation of data and when relating the data to processes/products/FUs | 3 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| 5 | Scope and goal | Wrong limitations | Exclusion of important data/stages/system boundaries/environmental impacts | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 3 | 4 | 3 | 36 |
| 6 | Inventory analysis | Material and energy flows | All material/energy flows (primary/converted energy, inputs from nature/from technosphere) not included | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 3 | 3 | 3 | 27 |
| 7 | Inventory analysis | Waste streams | Incorrect calculations of outputs to nature/technosphere | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 3 | 3 | 3 | 27 |
| 8 | Inventory analysis | Imprecise allocation | Incorrect allocation of the total emissions and material consumption attributed to each specific product | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 5 | 2 | 4 | 40 |
| 9 | Impact assessment | Lack of an accepted official list of environmental impacts | Subjective choice of environmental impacts | Wrong/un-useful environmental impacts calculated | 5 | 2 | 4 | 40 |
| 10 | Interpretation of results | Uncertainty | Quality of data, subjective choice system boundaries, allocation rules, functional units, environmental impacts | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 3 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| 11 | Interpretation of results | High sensitivity | Sensitivity analysis shows that the input data and methodological choices influence the results of a LCA too much | Results will show only partial life-cycle of the food product | 4 | 2 | 4 | 32 |