Life cycle inventories and life cycle impact assessment datasets of a classic processing route for the manufacture of infant milk formula powder and of a low-heat alternative route involving the substitution of pasteurization by microfiltration.

Infant milk formulas are industrial substitutes to human milk, used when breastfeeding is neither possible nor desirable. They are manufactured using successive additions of dry ingredients and oils to skim bovine milk, blending, pasteurization, homogenization, concentration by vacuum evaporation and spray-drying. However, successive heat loads are detrimental to the proteins' nutritional quality of the final product. An alternative processing route has been proposed that replaces the first pasteurization step at 85 °C by a microfiltration step at 50 °C, i.e. below the heat-denaturation temperature of milk proteins. This data paper provides extensive description of the two processing routes at a semi-industrial scale, using measurements, calculations of the material and energy balances, expert say information, or proxies collected at UMR STLO in the period 2020-2024 and organized into life cycle inventories of all the data required for modelling. This dataset further provides the potential environmental impacts of 1 kg of the classic infant milk powder, as well as of 1 kg of infant milk powder produced using low-heat processing route as an alternative product. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standard method was used, with the CML-IA, ReCiPe 2016, Impact World+, LC-Impact or EF3.0 characterization methods and a dry matter allocation rule for the skimming operation. The dataset further provides variations of the inventories and environmental impact assessments to evaluate the sensitivity of the results to the formula's dry matter content prior to spray-drying or to the liquid dry state of the whey ingredient involved in the formula. The dataset participates in providing LCI of industrial food processes to the public. It will also be helpful for eco-designing classic or innovative processing routes for the manufacture of environmentally sustainable infant milk powders.