With all of the time, money, and effort that goes into producing delicious and safe food products, it can be discouraging to learn how much of it all goes to waste.
According to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2019 alone, 40 million tons of wasted food were generated in the food and beverage manufacturing and processing sectors. But beyond the wasted food, there is also the massive amount of plastic packaging that piles up in landfills and leaks into the environment. An OECD report from 2022 found that packaging accounts for 37% of all plastic waste in the U.S., and totaled more than 27 million tons in 2019 alone.
Climate change already poses a serious risk to food safety systems around the world. And as the food industry grows and supply chains become more complex, the environmental toll will rise, and the industry in the U.S. may find itself facing many of the sustainability requirements faced by manufacturers in Europe, according to Alfonso Capuchino, the Global Technical Director for the Food, Feed & Farm Sector for Kiwa.
“Food companies are always concerned about showing that their products look good, taste good, and are safe for consumption. But there is always the question of what their impact is on the world and on the communities that produce these products.”
Capuchino stated that this is a growing issue for many food retailers and producers, mainly in Europe, where companies are required to show their sustainability and environmental performance in what it is called the European Green Deal.
“Companies must demonstrate that what they are producing is not going to affect the environment, and you are taking due diligence to reduce the impact, considering your products, your packages, your processes, and how they will impact the environment.”
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to address poverty, climate change, inequality, and environmental degradation. Among others, those 17 goals include waste less food and water, use of affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.
In March 2022, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) launched a campaign to map out ways that the food industry can meet the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
In a press release, the GFSI and the Consumer Goods Forum described the world’s growing food supply and “the urgent need to preserve the planet, the requirement to shift to more sustainable production and consumption patterns, as well to make the food system less fragile and unequal; all while also combating food fraud and managing the impacts of climate change.”
The press release focused on three main areas of interest - safer food, food waste and the management of chemicals, and good water and sanitation.
Sustainability is a sprawling, complicated concept, and it can be hard for food companies to know where to begin. Capuchino said this is even more of a challenge for smaller and medium-sized companies.
The first step, according to Capuchino, is for small and medium-sized companies to start learning about sustainability and the industry guidelines that relate to it. He said companies should use available checklists and standards to assess how they are adhering to sustainability guidelines.
He also recommended that companies focus more on their supply chain to see if their suppliers are maintaining sustainability standards and, if not, in the future will be a factor to consider shopping elsewhere.
“I think the main thing that companies can do is to start working on a baseline to understand where their [sustainability] gaps are…Maybe their main impact is the type of packaging, their use, or their sanitation program, and an analysis of the waste stream volume. But you need to start somewhere and do that kind of gap assessment to determine where you are and where you need to improve.”
Capuchino also advocated a sort of “revolution” in sustainability. He compared it to the way companies hire experts in quality control, saying that companies should find ways to hire and train experts in sustainability
Ultimately, when it comes to sustainability, food manufacturers in the United States may have no choice but to implement wide-reaching changes due to pressure from consumers and retailers.
“Companies may need to make these changes because customers drive them to or because retailers tell them that they prefer to use other suppliers."
He used the example of palm oil, saying that "companies say they use palm oil because its versatility and cost effectiveness, but consumers have figured out how much the growth in plantations impacts deforestation and biodiversity loss, and are seeing bans as an ingredient unless they can demonstrate that it comes from sustainable producers. He added, “when your main customer is telling you to initiate something or I'm not going to buy from you anymore, then it's starting to affect the bottom line.”
Sustainability is not an isolated concept. Capuchino said “everything is connected,” and used the example of a company examining how it can reduce its water usage rate. By doing so, that may affect the sanitation compliance of their production lines. As alternative companies may look for more aggressive cleaning chemicals, and such practice may increase the risk of chemicals being handled by the employees, and similar effects in the wastewater stream
He also stated that sustainable measures aren’t only about protecting the Earth, it is also about the impact of the communities, particularly indigenous and rural populations that suffer displacement and loss of land rights.
“It’s not just about being greener there is also the social component.”
To learn about how climate change is affecting food safety and the food industry, read the recent Rootwurks post “How Climate Change Threatens Food Safety - and What the Industry and the Public Can Do.”