------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- 1. Title and description of the dataset: Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables Abstract: Abstract Purpose The food industry should evolve towards new business models which take into account the damage cost in decision making, considering the impact that its products generate on the natural and human environment. Hence, the present study aims to calculate the damage cost caused by the production of whole fresh (as average of potatoes, aubergines, and broccoli), and processed vegetables (fresh-cut and pre-cooked). Methods The environmental life cycle approach was carried out per kilogram of assessed products (from cradle to the entrance of the market). The foreground Life Cycle Inventory was obtained from engineering procurement and construction projects of the whole fresh and processed vegetables industries. The Ecoinvent 3.8 and Agribalyse 3.0.1 databases were used for the background inventory. The ReCiPe 2016 method was used with a hierarchical perspective, evaluating eighteen midpoint categories as well as the endpoint categories (human health, ecosystems, and resources). The monetisation of these environmental impacts was then calculated using the endpoint monetisation factors developed by Ponsioen et al. (Monetisa- tion of sustainability impacts of food production and consumption. Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen, 2020) for each product. It should be noted that this study does not include a comparative assessment. This study does not intend to compare the results for the three vegetable groups. Results and discussion The damage costs were 0.16 €/kg for whole fresh vegetables, 0.37 €/kg for fresh-cut vegetables and 0.41 €/kg for pre-cooked vegetables. The agricultural production stage contributed most to these total damage costs due to the impact produced on land use and global warming in midpoint categories and human health and ecosystems in endpoint categories. In addition, the damage cost due to fossil resource scarcity (midpoint) and resource scarcity (endpoint) was mainly caused by the plastic packaging of fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. The total cost was 1.02 €/kg for whole fresh vegetables, 2.99 €/kg for fresh-cut vegetables, and 3.43 €/kg for pre-cooked vegetables. Conclusions These results suggest that some efforts should be made to reduce both environmental impacts and damage costs. For instance, to improve agricultural production, special attention should be paid to fertilisation and water consumption. Additionally, new packaging options should be explored as well as the inclusion of renewable sources in the electricity grid, and finally, on transporting the finished products to the market, by using trucks that run on cleaner fuels. 2. Author's contact information (name, email, ORCID, institution) Laura Rasines a,b (laura.rasines@upct.es; ORCID:0000-0001-5907-9882), Serni Morera a (serni.morera@upct.es; ORCID:0000-0002-5340-555X), Guillermo San Miguel c (g.sanmiguel@upm.es; ORCID:0000-0003-0298-8916), Encarna Aguayo a,b (encarna.aguayo@upct.es; ORCID: 0000-0002-0052-4168)* a Postharvest and Refrigeration Group, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), 30202 Cartagena, Spain b Food Quality and Health Group, Institute of Plant Biotechnology (UPCT), Campus Muralla del Mar, 30202 Cartagena, Spain c School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII), Grupo de Agroenergética, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28006 Madrid, Spain 3. Date of data collection: 2023-04-11 4. Geographic location of data collection (latitude, longitude, or cityregion, Country, continent as appropriate): Spain 6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation - National Research Agency (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, of the European Union [RTI2018-099139-B-C21]. Laura Rasines acknowledges financial support by MCIN/AEI and by “ESF Investing in your future” grant [PRE 2019-090573]. Thanks also go to the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia through the Fundación Séneca - Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia (Seneca Foundation - Agency for Science and Technol- ogy in the Region of Murcia in Spain) and European programme NextGenerationEU. 7. Recommended citation for this dataset 8. Language of the dataset: English ---------------------------------- SHARINGACCESSCONTEXT INFORMATION ---------------------------------- 1. Usage Licensesrestrictions placed on the data (please indicate if different data files have different usage license) 2. Links to publicationsother research outputs that cite the data: Rasines L, Morera S, San Miguel G, Aguayo E (2024) Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Int J Life Cycle Assess. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02292-z 3. Links to publicationsother research outputs that use the data: Rasines L, Morera S, San Miguel G, Aguayo E (2024) Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Int J Life Cycle Assess. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02292-z 4. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: 5. Linksrelationships to ancillary data sets 6. Was data derived from another source If so, please add link where such work is located: The sources of this datasets is explained in the follwing article :Rasines L, Morera S, San Miguel G, Aguayo E (2024) Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Int J Life Cycle Assess. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02292-z -------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW -------------------- 1. File List (if file is compressed, list its content) a. Rasines_et_al_2024. Exploring the total cost b. readme.txt 3. File format (provide a list of all file formats present in this dataset): Excel 3. Relationship between files, if important: NO 4. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package 5. Are there multiple versions of the dataset If so, please indicate where they are located -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collectiongeneration of data: Read the methodology section of Rasines et al. (2024)for further information. Rasines L, Morera S, San Miguel G, Aguayo E (2024) Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Int J Life Cycle Assess. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02292-z 2. Methods for processing the data 3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpretreproduce the data, please indicate their location: SimaPro 4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate 5. Environmentalexperimental conditions: Read the methodology section of Rasines et al. (2024)for further information. Rasines L, Morera S, San Miguel G, Aguayo E (2024) Exploring the total cost of whole fresh, fresh-cut and pre-cooked vegetables. Int J Life Cycle Assess. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02292-z 6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data 7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis andor submission, please specify using CREDIT roles httpscredit.niso.org Laura Rasines: Experiments, Data curation, Meth- odology, Software, Investigation, Writing – original draft preparation. Serni Morera: Experiments, Data curation, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft preparation. Guillermo San Miguel: Conceptu- alisation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Investigation, Writing - review & editing. Encarna Aguayo: Conceptualisation, Supervision, Data curation, Validation, Investigation, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration. 8. Author contact information encarna.aguayo@upct.es ------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION ------------------------- 1. Number of variables: Global warming, human health kg CO2 eq Global warming, ecosystems kg CO2 eq Stratospheric ozone depletion kg CFC11 eq Ionizing radiation kBq Co-60 eq Ozone formation, Human health kg NOx eq Fine particulate matter formation kg PM2.5 eq Ozone formation, Terrestrial ecosystems kg NOx eq Terrestrial acidification kg SO2 eq Freshwater eutrophication kg P eq Marine eutrophication kg N eq Terrestrial ecotoxicity Kg 1,4-DCB Freshwater ecotoxicity Kg 1,4-DCB Marine ecotoxicity Kg 1,4-DCB Human carcinogenic toxicity Kg 1,4-DCB Human non-carcinogenic toxicity Kg 1,4-DCB Land use m2a crop eq Mineral resource scarcity kg Cu eq Fossil resource scarcity kg oil eq Water consumption, human health m3 Water consumption, ecosystems m3 Endpoint impact categories Damage units Human Healtha DALY Ecosystemsa Species·yr Resourcesb USD2013 Damage cost €2021 Life cycle costing €2021 2. Number of casesrows 3. Variable List 4. Missing data codes : NO 5. Specialized formats or other abbreviations used 6. Dictionariescodebooks used 7. Controlled vocabulariesontologies used