News
Foundation Earth joins EIT Food to put an end to ‘unnecessary’ eco-label competition
The joining of these two organisations will see the creation of the International Alliance for Food Impact Data, as they work together to develop a harmonised way of calculating F&B eco-labels.
Environmental data is key in the journey towards a sustainable food system, but so far the industry has failed to create a standardised way of collecting and calculating it. Globally, there is a myriad of different methodologies and labels – and without a benchmark, it makes the data somewhat redundant.
The new Alliance will consider the EU policy landscape to ensure that any mandated standard is of the ‘highest level’ and can be applied across multiple geographies. It will also be seeking partnerships with other industry players, policymakers and consultants so it delivers ‘large-scale impact’.
“Environmental data is a key lever of change for food systems transformation,” said EIT Food chief executive Richard Zaltzman. “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 proofing innovation in our sector and enabling us to reduce the environmental impact of the entire food system.”
This move follows Foundation Earth’s decision to publish its methodology as an open source material in March 2023.
EIT Food has been working with Foundation Earth since its inception in 2021, but Zaltzman believes this new initiative will accelerate their work to harmonise eco-labels within food and drink, addressing current confusion that is presently “hampering” environmental scoring.
Cliona Howie, who sits at the helm of Foundation Earth as its chief executive, will now become the director of data impact systems at EIT Food, leading the charge at the International Alliance for Food Impact Data.
The Alliance will inherit many of the critical building blocks that have been put in place by Foundation Earth since it was first envisioned by its late founder, Denis Lynn.
“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,” Howie said.
“This new Alliance 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. 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.”
Will the UK follow suit?
In the UK, the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) is investigating ways of improving the availability, quality and comparability of data in the food supply chain.
The FDTP has gathered feedback and evidence from across the food and drink sector and is currently in the process of developing a methodology.
The evidence provided so far, has raised two distinct challenges, Defra told Food Manufacture.
The first challenge is a lack of consensus on how to fairly and accurately quantify product level environmental impacts. The second is the insufficient availability and quality of data used to inform these assessments.
Therefore, the partnership is currently focusing on these areas. To this end, Defra has commissioned new work to develop a product level accounting standard for the agri-food sector that will be delivered by WRAP. This will build on and align with existing standards, such as PAS2050 and the 2006 IPCC Guidelines.
The resulting recommendation for a standardised multi-metric product level accounting method for the agri-food sector will inform future policy on food and drink eco-labelling. Derfa expects this to be delivered by March 2026.
The department has told Food Manufacture it is continuing to support new and existing industry-led initiatives to develop the evidence base in these areas in parallel to its work on data and metrics.
It added that the news on the EIT-Foundation Earth collaboration is welcomed, and it looks forward to continuing sharing ideas and evidence with them to inform its own policy development and maximise international alignment of its work.
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