Abstract
Food systems are playing a key role in the transition toward a more social, environmental and economical sustainable way of production and consumption. Within the food industry, meat-based products are responsible of an important part of the food supply chain global impact. Sustainable practices and production systems affect the efficiency and mitigate the environmental and social impact. Within the European context, the technological development is fostering the spread of sustainability practices and of more effective sustainability measures, often oriented to international frameworks. In Italy, a country characterized by high variety of fresh meat and cured meat-based products, there is a lack of research on social and environmental accounting, nor on the disclosure of sustainability practices. The main goal of this paper is to investigate on the diffusion of sustainability practices through a critical assessment conducted among these companies. The area under analysis includes, but is not limited to, the analysis of governance, communities, supply chain and environmental impacts. For each area, it has been mapped and discussed issues, indicators and the implementation of international standards and diffused best practices. The focus, according to the existing literature, is on supply chain best processing practices and the discussion of the relative environmental product impact. This focus includes the analysis of carbon emissions, technological readiness of products packaging, the intensity of water withdrawals, water and waste disposal. The findings show a wide disclosure of supply chain and product sustainability issues, while the environmental and governance areas are less thorough. One of the main implications for the industry is the need to adopt a holistic approach to sustainability walking and talking, also considering what is happening in other food sub-industries.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Data extracted on 10 January 2022.
References
Alemayehu, K. (2011). Value chain assessment of beef cattle production and marketing in Ethiopia: Challenges and opportunities of linking smallholder farmers to the markets. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 23(12), 255–265.
ALTIS. (2021a). Lo stato dell’arte della sostenibilità nella GDO alimentare. Report di ricerca 2021/01. https://altis.unicatt.it/altis-2021-partnership-gdo-settore-agroalimentare-filiera-sostenibile
ALTIS. (2021b). Il paradosso dell’olio d’oliva: prodotto sostenibile, comunicazione acerba. Report di ricerca 2021/02. Retrieved from https://altis.unicatt.it/altis-2021-olio-oliva-sostenibilita
Aranda, J., Zambrana-Vásquez, D., Del-Busto, F., & Círez, F. (2021). Social impact analysis of products under a holistic approach: A case study in the meat product supply chain. Sustainability, 13(21), 12163.
Assalzoo. (2021). Report ambientale 2020. Retrived from https://www.assalzoo.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ASSALZOO_Report_Ambientale_2020.pdf
Assica. (2021). Rapporto annuale 2020. Retrived from https://www.assica.it/it/pubblicazioni/rapporto-annuale.php
Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2016). Food in society: Economy, culture, geography. Routledge.
BEUC - Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs. (2022). One bite at a time: consumers and the transition to sustainable food. Retrieved from https://www.beuc.eu/publications/beuc-x-2020-042_consumers_and_the_transition_to_sustainable_food.pdf
Cappelli, L., D’Ascenzo, F., Arezzo, M. F., Ruggieri, R., & Gorelova, I. (2020). The willingness to pay in the food sector. Testing the hypothesis of consumer preferences for some made in Italy products. Sustainability, 12(15), 6275.
Carni sostenibili. (2016). La sostenibilità delle carni e dei salumi in Italia. Franco Angeli.
Cesari, V., Zucali, M., Sandrucci, A., Tamburini, A., Bava, L., & Toschi, I. (2017). Environmental impact assessment of an Italian vertically integrated broiler system through a life cycle approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 904–911.
Clark, M. A., Springmann, M., Hill, J., & Tilman, D. (2019). Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(46), 23357–23362.
Demetra – Lav. (2021). Il costo nascosto del consumo di carne in Italia: impatti ambientali e sanitari. Retrieved from https://www.lav.it/cpanelav/js/ckeditor/kcfinder/upload/files/files/RICERCA_INTEGRALE_DEMETRA%281%29.pdf
Djekic, I., & Tomasevic, I. (2016). Environmental impacts of the meat chain – Current status and future perspectives. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 54, 94–102.
e-Ambrosia – European Commission. (2022). Database: last access 16/06/2022. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels/geographical-indications-register/
European Commision. (2022). Study on Animal Welfare Labelling. Retrieved from: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/49b6b125-b0a3-11ec-83e1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
European Commission. (2020). Farm to fork strategy: For a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. DG SANTE/unit ‘food information and composition, food waste’. Retrieved on 14 April 2021 from https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/f2f_action-plan_2020_strategy-info_en.pdf.
FAO. (2018). The future of food and agriculture—Alternative pathways to 2050. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
FEFAC. (2021). Soy Sourcing Giudelines. Retrieved from https://fefac.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FEFAC-Soy-Sourcing-Guidelines-2021.pdf
Ferrer-Pérez, H., Abdelradi, F., & Gil, J. M. (2020). Geographical indications and price volatility dynamics of lamb prices in Spain. Sustainability, 12(7), 3048.
Godfray, H. C. J., Aveyard, P., Garnett, T., Hall, J. W., Key, T. J., Lorimer, J., et al. (2018). Meat consumption, health, and the environment. Science, 361(6399), eaam5324.
Golini, R., Moretto, A., Caniato, F., Caridi, M., & Kalchschmidt, M. (2017). Developing sustainability in the Italian meat supply chain: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Production Research, 55(4), 1183–1209.
Green, A., Nemecek, T., Chaudhary, A., & Mathys, A. (2020). Assessing nutritional, health, and environmental sustainability dimensions of Agri-food production. Global Food Security, 26, 100406.
Greenpeace Italia. (2020). Il peso della carne. https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-italy-stateless/2020/10/b3ee8b89-report-il-peso-della-carne.pdf
Henchion, M., Moloney, A. P., Hyland, J., Zimmermann, J., & McCarthy, S. (2021). Trends for meat, milk and egg consumption for the next decades and the role played by livestock systems in the global production of proteins. Animal, 15, 100287.
Hilborn, R., Banobi, J., Hall, S. J., Pucylowski, T., & Walsworth, T. E. (2018). The environmental cost of animal source foods. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(6), 329–335.
IPCC (2019), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Report 2019, (last access: january 2023) retrived from: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/11/SRCCL-Full-Report-Compiled-191128.pdf
ISMEA – Qualivita. (2022). Rapporto 2021 sulle produizioni agroalimentari e vinicole italiane DOP, IGP e STG. https://www.qualivita.it/scarica-il-rapporto-ismea-qualivita-2021/.
ISPRA (2021), Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Report: Le emissioni di gas serra in Italia: obiettivi di riduzione e scenari emissivi, (last access: january 2023) retrived from: https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/files2023/pubblicazioni/rapporti/rapporto_384_2023_le-emissioni-di-gas-serra-initalia.pdf
Macdiarmid, J. I., Cerroni, S., Kalentakis, D., & Reynolds, C. (2021). How important is healthiness, carbon footprint and meat content when purchasing a ready meal? Evidence from a non-hypothetical discrete choice experiment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 282, 124510.
Mathijs, E. (2015). Exploring future patterns of meat consumption. Meat Science, 109, 112–116.
Mele, M., Nudda, A., Pauselli, M., Roscini, V., Casarosa, L., Secchiari, P., & Pulina, G. (2015). Consumo di carne e salute umana. In Alimenti di Origine Animale e Salute. Franco Angeli.
Molteni, M. (2007). Gli stadi di sviluppo della CSR nella strategia aziendale. Impresa Progetto-Electronic Journal of Management, (2).
Nam, K. C., Jo, C., & Lee, M. (2010). Meat products and consumption culture in the east. Meat Science, 86(1), 95–102.
Nomisma. (2020). Osservatorio the world after lockdown. Consumer Survey per Fileni.
Nomisma. (2021). Osservatorio Packaging del Largo Consumo. Consumer Survey.
Sacchettini, G., Castellini, G., Graffigna, G., Hung, Y., Lambri, M., Marques, A., et al. (2021). Assessing consumers’ attitudes, expectations and intentions towards health and sustainability regarding seafood consumption in Italy. Science of the Total Environment, 789, 148049.
Sala, S., McLaren, S. J., Notarnicola, B., Saouter, E., & Sonesson, U. (2017). In quest of reducing the environmental impacts of food production and consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 387–398.
Tait, P., Saunders, C., Guenther, M., & Rutherford, P. (2016). Emerging versus developed economy consumer willingness to pay for environmentally sustainable food production: A choice experiment approach comparing Indian, Chinese and United Kingdom lamb consumers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 124, 65–72.
Taylor, D. H. (2005). Value chain analysis: An approach to supply chain improvement in Agri-food chains. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management., 35, 744.
Tukker, A., Goldbohm, R. A., De Koning, A., Verheijden, M., Kleijn, R., Wolf, O., et al. (2011). Environmental impacts of changes to healthier diets in Europe. Ecological Economics, 70(10), 1776–1788.
UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS. (2021). WORLD POPULATION PROSPECTS 2017-VOLUME I: Comprehensive tables. UN.
WHO. (2020). World health statistics 2020: Monitoring health for the SDGs, sustainable development goals. World Health Organization.
Willett, W., Rockström, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., Lang, T., Vermeulen, S., et al. (2019). Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT–lancet commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet, 393(10170), 447–492.
WWF. (2021). Dalle pandemie alla perdita di biodiversità. Dove ci sta portando il consumo di carne, Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.it/uploads/Report-Allevamenti-e-Zoonosi_21lug21.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Caccialanza, A., Sartori, A., Gubelli, S., Giannini, F.R., Capri, E. (2023). The Sustainability of Meat and Cured Meat Supply Chain: Where Are we Now?. In: Fellegara, A.M., Torelli, R., Caccialanza, A. (eds) Sustainable Transition of Meat and Cured Meat Supply Chain. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34977-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34977-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-34976-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-34977-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)