Food production systems change over time and currently a strong driver of change within food systems is the effort towards sustainability. Food sustainability is about ensuring the way we produce, distribute and eat food allows the nutritional needs of society to be met from the available environmental resources, both in the present, and into the future.
The EU Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy foresees three broad dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The FSAI’s perspective is that food systems can only be sustainable if the output is one of safe and nutritious food. Making changes to how food is produced, including changes to improve sustainability during animal/plant production or during processing/packaging, may impact food safety and nutritional benefit.
The FSAI is an active participant in various initiatives aimed towards sustainability. In general terms, the FSAI’s role is one of facilitating sustainability-oriented transition of food systems, by ensuring such changes assess, manage and ideally improve food safety.
Some of the key areas where the FSAI is participating are described below.
Food Vision 2030 Strategy
The Food Vision 2030 Strategy is a new 10 year Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine strategy for the Irish agri-food sector (taken to include primary agriculture, food and drink processing and manufacturing, fisheries, aquaculture and fish processing, forestry and forestry processing and the equine sector). The FSAI continues to input into a number of initiatives under the strategy ensuring food is safe and nutritious.
The vision of the strategy is that Ireland will become a world leader in sustainable food systems over the next decade. This will deliver significant benefits for the Irish agri-food sector, for Irish society and for the environment. In demonstrating the Irish agri-food sector meets the highest standards of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) this will also provide the basis for the future competitive advantage of the sector.
Food Reformulation
In 2016, the Department of Health indicated its intention to introduce a food reformulation strategy for Ireland. The strategy was published in 2021 and is outlined in A Roadmap for Food Product Reformulation in Ireland. This voluntary reformulation programme runs between 2021 and 2025 and aims to reduce calories, saturated fat, sugar and salt in food. The reformulation of food helps to achieve a sustainable supply base of healthier food products.
The FSAI, in partnership with Healthy Ireland, has led in the implementation of food reformulation by supporting industry initiatives to reduce calories, saturated fat, sugar and salt in food. See more information on the Roadmap and FSAI’s lead role.
Food Donation
Surplus food can contribute to food waste, and as part of a national roadmap to reduce food waste, the FSAI has led on various national initiatives. Currently, there are a number of social enterprises involved in the redistribution of surplus food and while it is perfectly acceptable for this surplus food to be redistributed or donated by food businesses, the food must be safe to eat, still in an acceptable condition, and needs to be handled and distributed safely.
To ensure that food safety remains a key part of food redistribution, the FSAI published guidelines for food businesses donating food and also for those receiving donated food.
EU Discussions on Sustainable Food Systems
As part of our role in policy advice, the FSAI is part of the Irish team contributing national input to the EU Expert Group with whom the EU Commission consults on the Farm to Fork Strategy.
One output of the group has been the development of the EU Food Systems Dashboard where available indicators of relevance to food safety may be viewed over time or across EU Member States.
Food Labelling
Food labelling is an important contributor to food sustainability. Regulating sustainability claims e.g. through food labelling law, along with the proposed law on green claims, contributes to transparency of the food chain and food nutritional characteristics, and ultimately assists with informed consumer choice. Consumers may see changes from use by dates to best before dates on certain suitable foods to minimise food waste. The FSAI provides advice to the food industry and ensures that any sustainability labelling initiatives comply with EU requirements and do not mislead the consumer.
Food Production
Sustainability initiatives include efforts to minimise the greenhouse gas emissions arising through food production. Whilst the approval of animal feed additives is based on safety assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, modification of the digestive processes of animals can have implications for the safety of food produced. The FSAI has contributed to the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations considering the food safety implication of ‘environmental inhibitors’.
Land-spreading of organic waste is an example of a circular economy approach which has benefits around nutrient recycling. However, it also brings risk to food produced from animals or plants grown on recipient land. The FSAI is a contributor to the development of national processes to ensure appropriate oversight that can facilitate this practice.
Food Production Quality Assurance Schemes
A substantial proportion of Ireland’s agrifood sector is within the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Schemes. The FSAI contributes to Bord Bia’s Technical Advisory Committees of the six primary producer schemes, along with the all-sector common provisions, keeping food safety at the core within the development of these schemes towards sustainability.
Food Packaging
Sustainability initiatives also include developments towards packaging with lower environmental impact. Packaging can be a significant contributor to food safety and conversely brings risk for food safety depending on the material. The FSAI is the competent authority in Ireland for food contact materials.
Food Innovation
Food innovation and the development of new foods and new processes is a powerful tool in the pursuit of sustainability. From processing methods to harness otherwise unmarketable parts of food, to precision fermentation using synthetic food enzymes, and plant-based substitutes for animal proteins, food innovations require active evaluation of the safety of the new food. The FSAI is the national competent authority for novel foods, and leads in the assessment of food enzymes and food additives.