Life Cycle Assessment at Different Broiler Fattening Phases

The broiler industry plays a crucial role in global food security and faces sustainability challenges that drive research aimed at assessing the environmental impacts of production. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental performance of different growth stages of broiler chickens in a Brazilian poultry industry. The analysis followed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and the ReCiPe 2016—Midpoint H calculation method. The data used were primary, provided by a company in the sector, and secondary, obtained from the Ecoinvent 3 inventory database. SimaPro version 9.5 software was used to perform the LCA analyses, with a functional unit of 1 kg of live broiler chicken and a system boundary at the farm gate. The results revealed that, at all stages, freshwater ecotoxicity had the greatest environmental impact, linked to the production of feed ingredients such as soybean and corn grains and crude soybean oil. Across the entire chain, the global warming potential value was 1.69 kg CO2-eq, with the final fattening stage showing the worst environmental performance. The study contributes to quantifying environmental performance and identifying critical inputs associated with environmental burdens in broiler production systems, providing evidence to support environmental management and sustainability assessment in poultry production.