Sustainability in Food Process Development: A Comprehensive Carbon Footprint Analysis Tool

Abstract

Food systems contribute a lot to carbon footprint. Increasing greenhouse gaseous concentration in the atmosphere is perturbing the environment to cause grievous global warming and associated consequences. The food industry encounters several challenges in achieving the desired carbon footprint reductions. These Challenges need to be understood in order to develop effective strategies to promote sustainability within this sector. Various approaches have been adopted to ensure sustainability in food processing, focussing on energy efficiency, waste reduction, and integration of renewable energy. Carbon emissions is associated with the entire supply chain, which includes upstream activities like agricultural production and downstream activities like consumption of products and their disposal are neglected areas. Hence it becomes a challenging task to obtain accurate data on emissions throughout the supply chain. There is a need of finding out various hotspots and for that new and innovative carbon footprint analysis tools are the requirement of food system and industry. By adopting the carbon footprint analysis tool and implementing reduction strategies, the industry can make substantial contributions to global climate change mitigation efforts. Collectively, these efforts can help nations achieve their targets outlined in international climate agreements. This chapter attempts to explore the concept of carbon footprints in reference to the food processes, focusing on the importance and advantages of conducting carbon footprint analyses to assess and alleviate the environmental impact of the food industry thus helping them to take a proactive initiative in building a more sustainable future.