New alliance created to put the environment impact of food to the test

In a major step towards transforming the environmental credentials of the food sector, the non-profit organisation Foundation Earth has been integrated into EIT Food, the world’s largest food innovation community, supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

The integration of Foundation Earth into EIT Food will provide the expertise needed for important advocacy work to develop internationally-recognised standards surrounding the use of data to assess the environmental impact of food.

The newly created International Alliance for Food Impact Data will have the mandate of developing internationally adopted and accepted standards for the environmental scoring for food.

Initially it will be considering the EU policy landscape, in the recognition that any future standards mandated by the EU will likely be of the highest level, ensuring that companies and supply chains can apply one standard for compliance across multiple geographies.

Foundation Earth launched in 2021 to develop a system for the environmental scoring labelling of food and drink products - and has won support for its work from a coalition of leading producers, scientists, campaigners, charities, technology partners and politicians who share the Foundation’s vision for a more environmentally-friendly food system.

It says environmental impact data is key to transforming food systems, and can be used to enable informed decision-making across the value chain for environmental and sustainability reporting, and in the development of front of pack labelling for consumers. 

A growing number of different methodologies and labels are in use globally, but they all adhere to different standards, meaning they aren’t comparable, and it is difficult for policy-makers, companies and consumers to assess the actual environmental impact of different food products, the alliance adds.

In order for the food industry to meet its Net Zero commitments, the complex challenge of environmental data, scoring and governance must be addressed, the alliance urges.

The integration of Foundation Earth into EIT Food is significant step in the development of the Alliance which will seek to work with industry, policymakers and consultancies to ensure the delivery of large-scale impact in the sector.

EIT Food chief executive, Richard Zaltzman, said, “Environmental data is a key lever of change for food systems transformation. We are absolutely delighted to integrate the knowledge and capacity of Foundation Earth into EIT Food, which will enable us to take strides towards 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 food and drink industry, policy, future-proving innovation in our sector and enabling us to reduce the environmental impact of the entire food system.”

Foundation Earth chief executive, Cliona Howie, is now director of data impact systems at EIT food, with responsibility for the alliance. She said, “Joining forces with EIT Food will foster wider collaboration across all those fragmented initiatives that are individually working on the environmental foot-printing of food and drink products. Those efforts are currently constrained by limited resources, which has slowed progress towards a single European-wide system.”

Cliona hopes the initiative 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”, with a focus on driving large scale impact that works across the whole food system. 

She continued, “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 food and drink industry.”