By revealing the -as yet hidden -environmental costs during feed optimization, our approach provides decision-makers with an understanding of sustainability as a quantifiable property that can be controlled in real-time production, thus promoting increased environmental awareness and more responsible production patterns. By extracting valuable information on ingredient quality, geographical origin and other relevant attributes, such as ingredient shelf life, chemical hazards, and agronomic practices , NIRS data can be used to control and optimize industrial processes towards increased safety and sustainability with consistent quality. Merging NIRS technology and LCA therefore has high potential for reducing environmental impacts throughout the processing and manufacturing industry, especially when the effects of process control on aspects such as energy usage, pollution and feedstock use are transparent.