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The reference document for the Food and Beverage Manufacturing sector

Food and Drink Manufacturing The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) developed a sectoral reference document on best environmental management practice in the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

This activity is part of the JRC work on identification of best environmental management practice and development of EMAS Sectoral Reference Documents for different sectors.

The document describes best environmental management practices that food and beverage producers can implement to reduce their environmental impact.

The work encompasses best environmental management practices which are broadly applicable to most food and beverage manufacturers, such as the carrying out of an environmental assessment, sustainable supply chain management, environmental friendly cleaning operations, improvement of energy efficiency, use of renewable energies, optimisation of transport and distribution, refrigeration and freezing operations and avoidance of food waste.  

Additionally, specific best practices were also identified for nine individual subsectors in the food and beverage manufacturing, namely the processing of coffee, manufacture of olive oil, manufacture of soft drinks, manufacture of beer, production of meat and poultry meat products, manufacture of fruit juice, cheese making operations, manufacture of bread, biscuits and cakes and manufacture of wine.

Work plan

  • Development of Background Document: December 2012 – February 2014
  • Contact with stakeholders and setting up the Technical Working Group (TWG): December 2013 - January 2014
  • Kick-off meeting of the Technical Working Group (TWG): Brussels, 20-21 February 2014
  • Development of the first draft of the best practice report, February 2014 – December 2014
  • Final Meeting of the TWG: Brussels, 2-3 December 2014
  • Final draft of the best practice report: June 2015.
  • Adoption of the sectoral reference document: August 2017

Current status

Based on a number of preparatory studies carried out by the Instituto Andaluz de Tecnologia (IAT, Spain), Asociacion de Investigacion de la Industria Agroalimentaria (AINIA, Spain) and Oakdene Hollins (UK) and the inputs, feedback and validation received from a Technical Working Group comprising experts from the sector, the JRC produced the best practice report for the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

On its basis, the European Commission developed and adopted an EMAS sectoral reference document on best environmental management practice for the food and beverage manufacturing sector.

Project Team and Contacts

The following people are part of the JRC EMAS SRD team:

  • Paolo Canfora
  • Marco Dri
  • Ioannis Antonopoulos
  • Pierre Gaudillat

If you have any question on the work carried out in this area or if you would like to contribute to the identification of best environmental management practices, please feel free to contact us. The best way to do so is sending an e-mail to JRC-EMAS-SRD@ec.europa.eu

Documents

2018
2017
2014