LIFE The Tough Get Going project: improving the efficiency of the PDO cheese production chains by a dedicated software

The paper describes the LIFE The Tough Get Going (LIFE TTGG) project (funded by EU) that aims to improve the entire life cycle efficiency of European Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheeses by designing and developing a software that will work as Environmental Decision Support System for the environmental footprint assessment (in compliance with PEF methodology promoted by European Commission) and its reduction. The tool has been calibrating and validating on the companies of the Grana Padano and Comté cheese supply chains (100 farms, 34 dairies, and 19 packers). In this article, the environmental impact of 10g dry matter (DM) of Grana Padano PDO cheese was evaluated, through 3 different impact categories: Climate Change, Acidification, and Mineral Fossil & Ren Resource Depletion. Two emission mitigation scenarios have been considered: reduction of energy consumption in the dairy processing phase and environmental packaging optimization.