IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i16p7119-d1459448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Exploration of Food Sustainability Practices in the Food Industry across Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Maria McDonagh

    (Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Atlantic Technological University, H91 T8NW Galway, Ireland)

  • Sarah O’Donovan

    (Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Atlantic Technological University, H91 T8NW Galway, Ireland)

  • Aisling Moran

    (Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Atlantic Technological University, H91 T8NW Galway, Ireland)

  • Lisa Ryan

    (Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Atlantic Technological University, H91 T8NW Galway, Ireland)

Abstract

Sustainability is becoming essential and actively debated in the food sector, influencing companies and stakeholders globally. Sustainability practices have been developed and integrated into food industry actions and policies to meet present needs without compromising future needs. The aim of this study was to explore the current sustainability practices across the food industry in Europe and how initiatives are developed, implemented and evaluated to achieve food sustainability targets. This study formed part of a larger European project (2022-1-IE01-KA220-VET-000087508 Digitalisation of Sustainable Health Education). In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 food industry employees with expertise in sustainability across Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, and Cyprus. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed. Three themes were identified: sustainable practices challenges, facilitators of green practice, and thinking to the future, Complying with the Science-Based Targets initiative, and setting emissions targets such net zero by 2050 and reducing waste output, drove sustainable activities. Participants identified barriers to initiative development and implementation including cost, monitoring time, product quality, and employee engagement. Employee and stakeholder understanding were crucial to sustainability initiative success. Gaps in research were identified as the proliferation of environmental labels and greater company collaboration to share sustainability data. A key consideration highlighted in discussions was the importance of collaboration and education for raising awareness and strengthening the implementation and long-term maintenance of food sustainability practices within industry. Greater collaboration between large food companies to share raw sustainability metric data could strengthen initiative outcomes and raise greater awareness among stakeholders, bridging the knowledge gap with producers or stakeholders who operate on a smaller scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria McDonagh & Sarah O’Donovan & Aisling Moran & Lisa Ryan, 2024. "An Exploration of Food Sustainability Practices in the Food Industry across Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7119-:d:1459448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7119/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7119/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ninon Sirdey & Hélène David-Benz & Alice Deshons, 2023. "Methodological approaches to assess food systems sustainability: a literature review," Post-Print hal-04141362, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asael Greenfeld & Dror Angel & Yanay Farja, 2024. "Valuing Sustainability Impacts and Food Security Effects of Local Mariculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Estelle Fourat & Eric Blanchart & Miriam Cué Rio & Maria J Darias & Arona Diedhiou & Isabelle Droy & Frédéric Jacob & Pierre Janin & Marjorie Le Bars & Alissia Lourme-Ruiz & Insaf Mekki & Philippe Mér, 2024. "Holistic approaches to assess the sustainability of food systems in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review," Post-Print hal-04662942, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7119-:d:1459448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.