Ensuring the quality and sustainability of imported foods in a global market
Agriculture, including producing produce is a vital industry
With global industrialisation expanding trade markets, the number of food products imported to and exported from the UK is greater than ever before. With this comes variation and uncertainty in the quality and sustainability of imported products to the UK.
At national level, standards for imported food are typically implemented in response to political and market changes. In addition to ensuring food safety, there is an ever-increasing demand from the public to better understand where food comes from, ensuring that it is safe, of sufficient quality and produced in a sustainable and ethical way.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned ADAS to explore methods of measuring and collecting data relating to imported food production standards.
How we undertook this research
This research included an independent assessment of how animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition) are currently considered within international imported food standards and trade agreements. ADAS wanted to better understand the potential data and metrics that are currently available.
It is impossible to practically check all these aspects on imported food products at the port gate, particularly considering the range of ways that food comes into the country, with some as raw materials, e.g., grains, and others as part or fully packaged products.
That is where food import standards and free trade agreements come in. They provide a potential mechanism to set out an agreed set of requirements for what the UK expects, which allows us to answer key questions such as, is a food product from one country comparable to another country in terms of its animal welfare, nutritional composition, and environmental impacts (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, biodiversity etc.)?
By reviewing the current data and literature regarding imported food standards, ADAS assessed metrics that could measure and monitor the consistency (or differences) of imported food production standards. To identify data gaps, we reviewed:
- scientific literature
- international trade agreements
- country import standards
- voluntary sustainability assurance schemes.
The research found that existing data and literature was limited in this space, with requirements for animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition criteria within international food import standards and trade agreements generally limited, vague or absent altogether.
Food assurance schemes were identified as one potential source of data that could go some way to fulfilling this need, although these have geographic limitations, variable uptake, differing auditing assurances, and applicable to only certain commodities, generally up to the farm-gate.
The research demonstrated the limited data and metrics available for measuring the three themes. This was particularly the case when it came to measuring and comparing UK production practices. However, the research also identified opportunities for data collection to support this research area in the future. This will inform FSA’s ongoing work around emerging challenges.
Read the full report
The full report is available on the Food Standards Agency website.
