The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food is launching an alliance convened by Foundation Earth to develop internationally recognized standards to score the environmental impact of F&B products.

Foundation Earth, an NGO that launched in 2021 to issue front-of-pack environmental scores, will merge into EIT Food and form the International Alliance for Food Impact Data.

The association will have the authority to develop and test the standards initially within the EU policy landscape, presuming that future policy responses will be of the highest level. This will ensure that companies across member states can apply one standard for compliance across different locations.

Richard Zaltzman, EIT Food’s CEO, says: “Environmental data is a key lever of change for food systems transformation. We are delighted to integrate the knowledge and capacity of Foundation Earth into EIT Food, which will enable us to take strides toward our shared mission of transforming the food system with credibly collected, measured and evaluated impact data.”

“This will form the basis for decision-making across the F&B industry, policy, future-proofing innovation in our sector and enabling us to reduce the environmental impact of the entire food system.”

Environmental impact data
The development comes amid concerns around a lack of standards and coordination among EU and international stakeholders.

Moreover, there is currently no EU-level organization streamlining environmental performance labels. This issue, EIT notes, has impeded the introduction of internationally recognized environmental scoring standards for F&B businesses.

“EIT Food has been working closely with Foundation Earth since its inception, and we are excited to accelerate the impact we can have across the continent by building a fresh alliance that delivers clear standards and addresses the confusion that is currently hampering the environmental scoring of food and drink,” says Zaltzman.

Environmental impact data is crucial to make informed decisions for players along the food value chain, particularly for environmental and sustainability reporting. There is a growing interest among consumers for more transparent front-of-pack labeling practices with health and wellness ruling F&B trends.

However, EIT Food notes that companies, policymakers and consumers find it difficult to gauge the actual environmental footprint of food products since multiple methodologies and labels are used in different markets globally, offering no universal standard.

EU legislation has made some progress in the area with its nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','342439','https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/proposal-directive-green-claims_en', 'article','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B');return no_reload();">proposed law on green claims, which aims to address nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','342439','https://www.packaginginsights.com/news/companies-can-no-longer-trick-people-european-parliament-adopts-directive-cracking-down-on-greenwashing.html', 'article','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B');return no_reload();">greenwashing, a practice wher a brand gives a misleading impression of the environmental impact of its product.

A harmonized approach
Food production nclick="updateothersitehits('Articlepage','External','OtherSitelink','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B','342439','https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food', 'article','EIT Food and Foundation Earth unite on global environmental scoring standards for F&B');return no_reload();">accounts for over 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the new alliance hopes to meet the pressing data, governance and scoring needs arising in the way of the industry’s net-zero commitments.

Jago Pearson, out-going chairman of Foundation Earth, says: “Our work now provides the building blocks for providing consumers with the information they need to make more environmentally-friendly buying choices and food producers with the credible information they need to innovate in a more sustainable way.”

“EIT Food will inherit a sound body of scientific work, a coalition of the leading political, industry and scientific figures in the field and a network of leading technology partners. I look forward to seeing EIT Food inject fresh resources and influence over this issue in the years to come.”

Cliona Howie, who will direct the Data Impact Systems, says joining forces with EIT Food will streamline fragmented initiatives that have been working on environmental scoring F&B offerings.

This unification will put into action the vision of a synchronized single standard for the ecological scoring of consumer goods that serves as a public instrument across the EU and beyond.

“Those efforts are currently constrained by limited resources, which has slowed progress toward a single European-wide system,” says Howie.

“This new alliance will help put an end to unnecessary competition and enable us to leverage a new platform to convene a real solution with a clear roadmap, in the public service. Our focus will be on driving large-scale impact that works across the whole food system and transforming the environmental credentials of the continent’s F&B industry.”