Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Challenges in the Food Industry

This report discusses the challenges that corporates existing in food industry face in meeting its corporate responsibility and sustainability. It also analyses and explains the best CSR practices.

UGB264 Business Ethics
Responsibility and
Sustainability

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Corporate social responsibility is a concept of the management following which the
company merges their concerns on the grounds of society and environment in the business
operations and stakeholders’ interactions. Sustainability refers to the use of such materials and
employment of such processes that cause minimal or no adverse effects to the environment.
There is a link between CSR and sustainability. All the processes that are adopted by the
companies as a part of their sustainable approach helps it fulfilling its CSR. The current report
will discuss the challenges that corporates existing in food industry face in meeting its corporate
responsibility and sustainability. Further the report will analyse and explain the best CSR
practices. Lastly recommendations will be included in the report for businesses showing that by
taking global considerations into account they are more responsible.
MAIN BODY
Examining and critically discussing the key challenges of corporate responsibility and
sustainability relating to Food Industry
Sustainability in business means ensuring that the all the processes of the business are
done keeping care for environment as a priority. Sustainability is its broader context includes
care for workers, inclusion and support to diversity, and avoidance of any kind of discrimination
at all the levels of organization (Panait and et.al., 2020). In today’s world of businesses almost all
the strategies revolve around assuring these areas. Corporates all over the world are on a mission
to fulfil this responsibility. There are a number of approaches that are followed by corporates to
fulfil their responsibilities towards the society. But the best way for understanding and
implementing the concepts of CSR is setting up of goals for developing sustainably.
The concept of corporate social responsibility emerged with the industrial revolution in
nineteenth century beginning. In the food industry CSR means going beyond the aim of
maximizing the profits. the industry should not only focus on earning increase in profits but also
over the wellbeing of society. It is the voluntary action of corporates and not their primary duty.
For the making of established business, it is necessary to work in accordance to the factors that
are not included in the traditional theory of economics (De Olde and Valentinov, 2019). Some
companies consider it as wasteful activity but in long term it is useful to have sustainable profits.
the companies that operates with the objective to do all such activities that will make them
successful to increase their profits results in inclusion of social welfare in their practices. The

challenge that the industry faces is to recognize what are actual things that should be done by
them as there are no such regulations made by the governments to specify the corporates and
regulate the problems arising in the society.
People of the society consider that the only responsibility of companies is towards its
shareholders. The sole priority and responsibility of the corporates is to maximize the interest of
the shareholders (Szőcs and Schlegelmilch, 2020). Hence anything that the business does outside
this and what does not maximize the profits of company is considered as the violation of
responsibility by the business. So the challenge faced by the industry is that all the activities that
are required to be done by business for implementation of sustainability and social welfare in the
organization costs more money and the profits gets low. Next challenge is that the activities of
the organization that actually benefits the society are neglected or goes unseen by the society.
The credits are not given to the companies for their good work in the areas of social welfare,
bringing value to the society and ensuring that minimal effect is exerted over the environment by
the operations of the company (Yadav and et.al., 2022). In long term it is considered that the
consumers in the market will prefer the companies that duly work for the betterment of the
society and environment and hence the company will gain but when such efforts by the firm goes
unseen, the long term benefits for the business will not be experienced by the company.
Further another challenge to CSR in food industry is that the amount of input is not
equivalent to the output. The main problem in implementing sustainable approach to business
processes is that if the older inputs are used the amount of profits earned will be high and if the
new sustainable inputs are used then the profits earned will be less. Hence the level of inputs
increases and the achieved output decreases. Furthermore, the mentality of consumers is also a
challenge. Even if the businesses genuinely work for the making of improvements to the society
and environment consumers thinks there some kind of secret agenda of the company behind
doing so. Hard work is not recognized by the customers ever; this instils the feeling in the minds
of company owners that there is no utility of doing such work for society. Packaging of the foods
is also a major challenge for packed food industry. Packaging is the main element in packed food
industry, it is used for the purposes of marketing and also for preservation of food contents.
Sustainability means use of such packaging material that is recyclable and environment friendly.
Using of plastics especially single use plastic is beneficial and highly cost effective for the
companies. But such materials are hazardous for the environment. So industries must use

packaging that is sustainable and environmental friendly. Here the challenge for the companies is
to search for sustainable alternatives of packaging materials.
Generally, all the materials used in sustainable packaging increases per unit cost of
production (Le Doan Minh Duc and et.al., 2018). Food wastage is another sustainability
challenge in the food industry. The term food waste means discarding the food that is fit for
consumption either at will or after it was left as a result of which it spoiled or because it became
expire. The wastage of food in food industry can be seen at all levels right from agriculture to the
distribution. It is a kind of tangible loss for the firms and also creates social and environmental
problems for the company. For instance, Britannia operates with the motive of offering best
products to its products to the consumers with utmost focus on the nutritional value of its
products and health care. With its CSR the company makes difference to the community by
addressing the major issues like under nutrition and malnutrition. Various programmes by the
company aim at fighting these issues, making a major part of its CSR activities. Other such
example is of Nestle, entailing a responsible behaviour right from its initial years. The
programmes by the company are aimed at up liftment and welfare of the society.
Critical Analysation and explanation of best practices within Food Industry
Best practices in the food industry with respect to corporate social responsibility are
sustainable packaging, waste management, charity. There are various activities with which
companies can corporate social responsibility one such activity is packaging with use of eco-
friendly materials (Stevens and et.al., 2018). Establishing an effective product strategy is the first
step that can be taken by companies to implement it. in addition to this focus over the green
packaging is the main element that can be done. Green marketing has two dimensions firstly the
use of packaging that is done by the utilization of eco –friendly products and materials and
second is creating awareness among the consumers that the packaging of the company’s products
is completely sustainable. The packaging should be recyclable. The examples of firms with
sustainable packaging is nestle, Quaker, green giant, uniliver, etc. the second key point is charity,
the concept of csr is very wide it includes which is inclusive of all the factors that are
environment, humans and well –being of the company.
Companies make donation with the objective of displaying their care for society, help to
those in need and providing support to the local communities. Another best practice is creation of
substitute products for the meat based products. Positive culture is the first practice that can

implemented in the food industry. It denotes to maintenance of safer and quality in processes at
the initial (farm or agricultural) level to the end level (distribution of products). Change in the
behavioural pattern and ongoing advancements are adopted for establishing and maintaining a
safer and quality prone culture in the organization. Hazards are analysed and monitored for this
purpose both at internal and external levels (Ponte, 2019). Focus of the manufacturers should be
on controlling the areas that can be controlled by the management. Building of teams is the
another practice. The management should hire best talents to the organization that can help in
competing within the industry. One of the best practices that the manufacturers in the food
industry must compile for improving profitability is FSMA. It is an abbreviate for food safety
modernization act, an extension of food safety bill. The law is made to control the cases of
illness from food products and contamination of food products (Gaitán-Cremaschi and et.al.,
2019).
CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Panait, M. and et.al., 2020. Implication of TNCs in agri-food sector: Challenges, constraints and
limits: Profit or CSR?. Strategic Management. 25(4). pp.33-43.
De Olde, E. M. and Valentinov, V., 2019. The moral complexity of agriculture: A challenge for
corporate social responsibility. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 32(3).
pp.413-430.
Szőcs, I. and Schlegelmilch, B. B., 2020. Embedding CSR in corporate strategies. In Rethinking
Business Responsibility in a Global Context (pp. 45-60). Springer, Cham.
Yadav, V. S. and et.al., 2022. A systematic literature review of the agro-food supply chain:
Challenges, network design, and performance measurement perspectives. Sustainable
Production and Consumption. 29. pp.685-704.
Le Doan Minh Duc, H. T. and et.al., 2018. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate
Financial Performance Case of Listed Vietnamese Companies. Zarz adzanie. 32. pp.251-
265.
Stevens, J. R. and et.al., 2018. The rise of aquaculture by-products: Increasing food production,
value, and sustainability through strategic utilisation. Marine Policy. 90. pp.115-124.
Ponte, S., 2019. Business, power and sustainability in a world of global value chains.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Gaitán-Cremaschi, D. and et.al., 2019. Characterizing diversity of food systems in view of
sustainability transitions. A review. Agronomy for sustainable development. 39(1). pp.1-
22.
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