Sustainability in Food Industry

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SUSTAINABILITY IN FOOD INDUSTRY
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One of the growing concerns in the food industry is the need for sustainability. Recent studies
have shown that the food industry lags in matters of environmental performance. Reason being
the industry plays a major role in impacting the environment. For instance, the total Greenhouse
gas Emissions (GHG) produced by the food industry alone is about 20-30 percent (Dincer, et al.,
2009). This poses a need for the players in this industry to seek ways of being more sustainable.
Following the same, global leaders are implementing sustainability initiatives within their
companies that will help reduce future negative impacts to the environment.
One such initiative is the EU environmental policies that have outlined various agendas that help
reduce some of the contributors of environmental degradation like poor waste management and
inefficient carbon reduction. The initiative describes the goal of sustainable environment as a
way to empower every individual globally to enjoy an improved quality life whilst satisfying
their basic needs without jeopardizing the quality of life of future generations. Which can only be
achieved through an innovative, sustainable and productive economy that provides high
employment levels: and a fair society that encourages social inclusion, personal wellbeing and
sustainable communities as a whole.
PART A
This next section discusses the most significant legislations by the EU that enhance sustainability
in areas such as waste management and carbon reduction.
Waste framework directive
EUs waste policy is driven by this directive (2008/98/EC) that gives the outline through which
waste management policy is achieved throughout its member states. It has sub-directives that
deal with wastes of a particular nature not necessarily food wastes. The predominant requirement

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of this directive is that the waste management hierarchy is applied by the UK. The order of
priority is set as follows; prevention, reuse, recycling and disposal. Each of which will be
discussed below (Priestley, 2016).
Landfill directive
Disposal of wastes was usually done at landfills, which is now regulated by the EU landfill
directive (1999/31/EC). This directive requires the UK by 2020 to minimize the total amount of
recyclable local waste sent to landfill by 30%. This initiative was met and by 75% and 50% in
2010 and 2013 respectively and the government is confident that it will meet the target set for
2020 (European Union, 2016).
Legislation on sustainability of waste management
As waste is a devolved matter, the waste legislation by EU applies to the whole of UK and hence
transposed into law in each state. Food waste has not been fully defined but can be described
generally as the food materials and drinks that are intended for human consumption by the
business in question but are not sold ultimately for human consumption. This includes both
edible and inedible parts of food. The sustainable UN development goals were agreed on 2015,
September. The waste framework directive by EU drives the UK waste policy and includes the
waste hierarchy looked at below (Priestley, 2016).
Prevention of waste
Prevention of food wastes focuses on reducing the amount of waste generated at a food source. It
involves considering a number of processes such as manufacturing, packaging, processing,
recycling, storage and disposal processes to recognize opportunities to manage and reduce the
impacts of waste to the environment.

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Successful waste prevention demands for completion of certain activities such as visiting of sites,
taking note of the production and packaging of wastes to guide and develop well practices, and
finally coming up with strategies for preventing, recovering and reusing.
Prevention of waste is beneficial in a number of ways. Such as:
I. Saving on costs by not purchasing excess surplus that will remain after a day’s operation;
II. Increasing efficiency of the resources because wastes are considered as losses to a
business and prevention of food wastes prevents this; and
III. It increases the environmental condition by eliminating cases of waste pollution; also
IV. A company that focuses on prevention of wastes can use it as a marketing tool since
every individual/potential customer would be genuinely interested in being a part of the
same.
Redistribution of wastes
The UK government promotes the redistribution of food surplus to other people if prevention of
food waste is futile. The view of the legislators is that food surplus production should be
maintained at a low rate but incase good food is not sold then it should be given to the less
fortunate to eat (Ole Jørgen Hanssen, 2015).
Recycling of food wastes
In England, separate food waste productions has not been given any legal requirements. The
local authorities of different areas are given that responsibility taking into consideration local
logistics and circumstances. There are a number of ways that can be used to recycle the food
wastes, for instance, mixing garden waste with food waste known as in-vessel composting.
It was concluded by the government that separate waste bins be provided where necessary so that
the waste food is moved to the bottom of the chain. Published reports in 2014 by the EAC (The