Contribution of greenhouse gas footprint of broiler product during electrical slaughtering in Taiwan

The food system is responsible for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with broiler production having a significant impact. Electrical slaughtering is the common method for producing broiler products in industrialized countries, but there has been insufficient research to measure its GHG footprint. Following the ISO 14067 standard for carbon footprint quantification of product, this study collected activity data (electricity utilization, refrigerant filling, fossil fuel consumption and wastewater management) during 2021 from two representative poultry electrical slaughterhouses in Taiwan to determine the GHG footprint contribution of broiler products during electrical slaughtering. The results show that electricity consumption contributes the most, accounting for 62.5 % to 71.7 % of the GHG footprint in the slaughterhouses. Refrigerant use (approximately 6.0 % to 11.7 %) and fossil fuel utilization (approximately 6.9 % to 8.5 %) are minor emission sources. Methane generated from wastewater treatment contributes about 5.0 % to 21.6 % of the GHG footprint, varying with pollutant load, and it is recommended that slaughterhouses carefully control this aspect.