ABSTRACT
The sustainability concept in the food chain has become a prominent and politically complex issue that has received attention from policymakers and researchers. This is because, in recent years, the significant role that food production has played in contributing to global climate change, mainly through its carbon footprint, has been scientifically recognized. However, while advances in research to overcome this bottleneck are promising, the high food carbon footprint is still a recurrent problem. In this context, it is necessary to discuss the key-factors of the environmental impacts associated with the food production chain, as well as to bring to light possible facilitating strategies, which can be planned to reduce their environmental burden. Therefore, this chapter aims to identify important key factors in the food generation chain process, which play a key role in the carbon footprint. Furthermore, as we move towards a more carbon-constrained world, enabling strategies have been proposed in order to meet the new environmental carbon reduction needs. To reinforce these solutions, real examples of large companies in the global food sector were highlighted, with the aim of emphasizing the promising results in reduction terms. Finally, the chapter presents a final consumer- and product-related approach, elucidating criteria beyond sustainability, to understand how consumers view carbon labels on food products.
