Sustainability and Ethics Along the Food Supply Chain

Abstract

Sustainable food supply chains are mostly based on sustainable agricultural production and food processing schemes. They employ efficient production; processing; distribution systems that protect quality, assure safety, and promote fair and transparent distribution of created value; consumer access to wholesome-healthy food at acceptable prices; and sustainable development of rural communities. Ensuring a safe and abundant food supply, and contributing to healthier people everywhere, poses a double challenge with a significant impact on future developments in food process technology and food sciences in general. There is a need to formulate, design, process, and label food to help the average consumer live on a healthier diet, moving away from obesity and diet-related diseases. There is also a need to reconsider and upgrade the role and impact of food sciences in the sustainable food supply chain, so as to increase visibility, responsibility, and effectiveness on feeding the starving population groups all over the world, including the “developed” countries. Securing adequate and safe food, at the primary production level, requires reorientation of production schemes toward sustainable methods, moving away from intensification-induced food crises (i.e., BSE, dioxins, antibiotics, growth hormones). Sustainable processing calls for minimal (often nonthermal) processes with low energy inputs and minimal mass/quality losses, with due respect to environmental issues. At the consumer level, there is a need to improve consumer awareness of real values in food (nutrition, quality, safety). Finally, there is a great deal of corporate responsibility for proper design and fair marketing of foods that promote consumer health and well-being.