Life cycle inventories and environmental impact datasets for the semi-industrial processing of food Faba bean or Pea protein ingredients

Thanks to their agronomical, nutritional and technological interests, pulses are very promising to reach the food-related sustainable development goals (SDG). In developed countries, they typically appear as good substitutes to animal proteins, thereby relieving livestock's environmental impacts of food systems. However, their share in the Western diet has dramatically declined throughout the 20th century. As a consequence, the release of public data regarding processed pulses is slower than for animal-based food products, while comprehensive comparative evaluation capabilities for animal and plant proteins are deemed necessary. Tremendous effort is therefore currently invested to support the reintroduction of pulses in agricultural practices and food innovations. In this way, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standard method that quantifies the potential environmental impacts of a manufactured product. In compliance with ISO 14 040 principles and framework, this data paper provides life cycle inventory and life cycle assessment datasets related to the production of two different types of pulse protein ingredients: dry-fractionated protein concentrates from five faba bean varieties and one pea variety, and a wet-fractionated protein isolate from one of the five faba bean varieties. Processing was achieved at a semi-industrial scale using classical technologies used in France in the 2020s. Background data was chosen in the Agribalyse 3.1.1 and Ecoinvent 3.9 databases. In the presented semi-industrial protein concentrate production system, the seeds were sorted, cleaned, dehulled then ground and turbo separated into a protein-rich and a starch-rich fractions. This data paper therefore provides the allocation factors to apply mass, dry matter, protein or economic allocation at dehulling and turbo separation. In the presented semi-industrial protein isolate production system, globulin proteins were extracted from an intermediate flour product by dispersion in water, acid precipitation, neutralization and stabilization into powder. All side streams were regarded as wastes and therefore no allocation was applied. Finally, the data paper provides the potential environmental impacts of 1 kg of each product using the characterization method EF 3.0 and the different allocation rules.