The food industry is a massive aspect of our daily lives and is an essential business as it supplies our stores with fresh produce and stocks our local restaurants. However, it’s also a huge contributor to food waste and damage to our environment. Due to this, sustainability has to be at the core of everything the food industry does to minimize its negative effects on the planet. This is achieved through various practices implemented across every stage of the food industry’s processes.
Discover how the food industry is becoming more sustainable to do its bit to reduce its negative environmental impact. See how this industry is supplying us with essential produce in a greener way, striving toward a healthier and greener future.
Improved farming
Farming has long been at the heart of negative environmental impacts through their farming processes. It has directly impacted climate, biodiversity, water, and pollution on our planet. Many businesses in the food industry have directly partnered with local farmers to ensure sustainability is achieved. This helps them to make the right choices to avoid potential environmental damage and work to build what’s been lost.
Farmers are putting the welfare of the animals at the forefront of everything they do. They look after their animals and feed them sustainably to ensure any animal product for the food industry is locally sourced and sustainable. Farmers also handle animal manure waste to reduce the negative impacts of these, using anaerobic digestion systems to create nutrient-rich byproducts.
Farmers are also working on reducing all waste they make from crop residues and animal manure to chemical containers. They carry out a waste assessment to find solutions to reducing and disposing of waste properly. Farmers have started to compost organic waste to make the soil better and have cut down synthetic fertilizers.
Accessibility to food
The food industry is striving toward providing us with more safe and nutritious food that is also accessible to everybody. Businesses within the industry want to provide healthy, safe, and nutritious food to create a healthier society. However, this is a difficult task to achieve as, across the world, around 807 million people have very little to eat or are malnourished. The food industry needs to figure out ways to be sustainable with accessibility, giving organic foods to the world. This food should also be at a price point where everybody can afford to nourish their bodies with quality ingredients.
The food industry is beginning to reduce fat, sugar, and salt in processed food and offering a range of diverse, healthy, and nutritious food at affordable prices. Many businesses are also cracking down on the use of chemical and allergen contamination when the produce is being made.
Food processing initiatives
Every single food item available to us and the food industry is processed in some type of way. Even the all-natural and organic foods still go through a process. This can be cutting, washing, separating, and other methods that are considered a process. However, every process that is done for different food items has a significant impact on our carbon footprint.
Around 20% of the total energy in the food cycle is used in the US, and this is something the food industry is tackling to be more sustainable. They are conserving and reusing processing energy and water through clean and green processes. Many businesses are using renewable energy wherever possible for the processing stage of their food cycle.
Sustainable packaging
Packaging in the food industry is the most vital part of trying to reduce waste and impact on the environment. It is also the area where consumers are actively looking for solutions to improve their carbon footprint and be more sustainable. Packaging has its own individual life cycle through its material, processing, and end-of-life process.
Many businesses within the food industry are focusing on how their packaging is made and how it is disposed of at the end of its life. Plastic is the main material used across the food industry, which has become detrimental to the environment as it sits in landfill for thousands of years because it can’t decompose. Alternatives, such as paper, cardboard without plastic, and recycled plastic, are starting to be used. The issue many businesses are having is finding a sustainable material that ensures food doesn’t perish. Using recycled materials or recyclable materials is the best step toward a sustainable future.
Reducing food waste
About one third of food is wasted or lost across the world. The food industry is working hard to reduce its food waste to prevent this from increasing in the future, as it’s predicted that by 2050 it could increase to 60%! A lot of food waste comes from stores and restaurants, from off-cuts to purchasing too much, so stock goes off. However, most food waste comes from our households throwing away food that is still edible. This is due to many not understanding the difference between a use-by date and a best before date.
Food is also wasted during processing, so the food industry has started to combat this by streamlining their processes and tightening their calculations of produce needed. Reviewing stock levels regularly helps to prevent stock from going off and being wasted. Supermarkets reduce their cost of food significantly, which is due to turn, to entice people to use it that day and reduce waste. Restaurants are lowering their stock levels and investing in products that have a longer shelf life.
Food waste management is also used across the food industry and at homes, with a focus on composting and food waste trash. This helps to reduce, reuse, and recycle food waste for other things to help protect the planet.
Efficient distribution of products
Distribution of products is a huge factor in the negative impact the food industry creates on the environment. Businesses in this industry need to search for sustainable ways to get their products to their workplace and out to the customers. This involves each stage of distribution, such as how goods should be transported to improve supply chain efficiency and be greener to the planet.
Many companies are using a multi-transportation method to cut down their emissions. For example, rather than only using air transportation (which is the most harmful to a business’s carbon footprint), they can use rail, boat, and road methods together. As well as this, how the products are stacked when transported should be considered. It’s important to try to get as many products as possible in one vessel, whether a lorry, ship, or train, to reduce the number of transportations needed for larger hauls. Businesses purchase plastic pallets to effectively stack products and fit more in, plus, they’re sustainable as they last longer and aren’t as bad for the environment as traditional wooden ones.
The food industry is becoming a more sustainable aspect of our daily lives and is significantly improving the environment. A lot of work is still needed to achieve that goal of a greener future, and if the food industry and us as consumers all work together in doing our part, we can transform the environment for a positive and healthier future.
