Sustainable sourcing policies are notoriously difficult to deliver but businesses can’t afford to deprioritise them, says Nick Hughes.
COMMENT: Sourcing must not be sacrificed
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Can polluting companies get away with greenwashing?
Brands making misleading claims are not always penalised by the public, which means regulators need to step in. David Burrows reports. Is it worth making green claims? Research published by McKinsey and NieselnIQ recently suggests so. They analysed five years of US sales data to June 2022 covering 600,000 individual product SKUs from 44,000 brands across food,…
Read moreComment: the complexities of changing food behaviours
It is only when we understand the richness and complexity of our relationship with food that we can change food behaviours for the better together, says Annet Hoek. Changing consumer food choices and consumption seems to be a more challenging endeavour compared to other consumer product choices, such as clothing or home appliances. That’s because…
Read moreComment: the footprints of food brands can be deceptively dainty
Digging through the data in order to report your full climate footprint can be heavy going but it pays to be transparent when reporting it, says David Burrows. Food companies continue to struggle with their scope 3 (value chain) emissions, which are on average more than 11 times higher than their scope 1 and 2…
Read moreComment: is mimicking meat a seriously good idea?
Plant-based alternatives are helping the shift to more sustainable diets but they don’t all need to mimic meat, says Eugene Wang. Hardly a day goes by without news of a new alternative to meat, or a study showing the need to shift our consumption patterns towards eating less meat and more plants. I still very…
Read moreComment: Plastic bans barely scratch the surface
It’s full steam ahead for single-use plastic bans but it is the rush to reuse that we should be cheering on, says David Burrows. Plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers are all for the chop come October 1st, 2023. The market restrictions, trailed first in the Mail on…
Read moreComment: Time for bosses to speak the truth to power
Industry leaders wanting stronger sustainability policies must make their voices heard in 2023, says Nick Hughes. In the spirit of this article I will get straight to the point. I have a polite request to make of business leaders in the foodservice sector: make 2023 the year you use your voice and status to make…
Read moreComment: Businesses failing to walk the talk on sustainability
Food companies in the FTSE 100 Index are making insufficient progress towards fair and sustainable models, says Maddy Diment. Thomas Redman, a leading data expert, once claimed “where there is data smoke, there is business fire”. That sentiment feels particularly resonant in the findings from this year’s Tortoise Media Responsibility100 Index. The index measures FTSE100 companies’ actions…
Read moreCOMMENT: Tackling obesity requires proper planning
The growth of US fast food chains in the UK market suggests policies to curb the proliferation of hot food takeaways need rebooting, says Nick Hughes. Last week health secretary Steve Barclay unveiled plans to fast-track “cutting-edge obesity treatments and technologies”. The government claims a new £20m fund could lead to promising medicines and digital…
Read moreCOMMENT: Blended burgers can help achieve net zero
Combining beef with vegetables and pulses can cut emissions and deliver on taste. What’s not to like, wonders David Burrows. Earlier this month I wrote this short news item about a study by the Stockholm Resilience Centre that looked under the bonnet of some of the sustainability claims made aboutby different food technologies, including blockchain, home delivery,…
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