Sustainable Foods Summit Europe

The agenda for the European edition of the Sustainable Foods Summit will feature sustainable ingredients and approaches to tackle food losses and waste.

Opening with a discussion on the implications of COP21, the event will discuss what can be done to mitigate emissions from the food industry, which generates a quarter of all greenhouse gases.

With half of food-related emissions coming from livestock production, presenters will look at the solutions provided by sustainable dairy farming and strategies for reducing and offsetting carbon emissions. The Marine Stewardship Council will also provide an update on sustainable seafood and its new seaweed standard.

Advances in sustainable ingredients will be discussed by the Italian pasta firm Barilla, which will show it is adding sustainable value to raw materials, leading to improvements in product quality, soil fertility and higher economic output. The Union for Ethical BioTrade will present a case study of its new sustainability program for herbal teas and Tradin Organic will highlight some of the issues when addressing social impacts of ingredients. Other topics will include emerging natural sweeteners, formulating for transparency and novel ingredients from food waste.

The future direction of sustainability labels will also be discussed, both the rising number of third-party labelling schemes and in-house sustainable sourcing programs like those introduced by Starbucks, Nestlé and Mondelez Foods. An update will be given on leading certification schemes: organic, fair trade, as well as new initiatives such as Danube Soya and the Sustainable Rice Platform.

The Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes of food goes to waste, releasing 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. The summit will discuss strategies for reducing losses at the grower, processing and distribution level, and highlight how unwanted food can be the source of new enterprise. A Dutch firm will present its experience in collecting ‘crooked’ vegetables to create sustainable soups, and a European supermarket will highlight the challenges in marketing ‘ugly’ fruits to consumers. The role of packaging in extending lifetime of food products will also be discussed, as well as overcoming barriers to reducing waste at consumer level.

The Sustainable Foods Summit will take place on 9–10 June, in Amsterdam.

Originally published here.