Fedima to pre-empt retailers with baked goods’ carbon calculations

Following his election in September last year as president of bakery and patisserie ingredients federation Fedima, Eric Schubert of Lessafre Group drew up a list of topics to be discussed amongst members.

Sustainability tops that list, and Schubert said: “We need to prepare ourselves carefully in order to face the upcoming legislative initiatives taken by the European Union in this matter. France has introduced a carbon tax but many questions remain unanswered.”​

The federation has decided to take a proactive approach on how to best assess the carbon impact of finished products, in anticipation of retailers requiring detailed information on carbon footprint. If retailers each hand down their own manual on how to calculate the footprint, manufacturers will face the burden of having to work to multiple methodologies.

Moreover the findings could be inconsistent between methodologies, Jean Christophe Kremer, secretary general of Fedima, explained to FoodNavigator.com. This could result in unfair competition if the same product had to carry different carbon information depending on where it is sold.

Kremer said Fedima is “well-placed for the bakery sector to provide the necessary figures to calculate an end product’s CO2 emissions”. ​

Carbon footprint is on the agenda for other food sectors too, such as fish processing and soft drinks – and indeed other consumer industries. But because bakery and patisserie products use many ingredients – such as flour, enzymes, emulsifiers, yeast – working out their combined impact will be complex.

Kremer added that Fedima does not plan to develop its own scientific methodology, but will be looking at activities in Brussels and the progress of the various sustainability initiatives in the food sector, including the recently formed Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) roundtable.

Last June Kingsmill became the first major bread brand to tackle lifecycle emissions by employing the Carbon Trust's carbon reduction label on three of its sub-brands, Great Everyday white, Tasty Wholemeal and 50/50.

Fedima’s other priorities ​

Amongst the other topics requiring attention, Schubert highlighted crisis management – and in particular the need to improve internal communications. A symposium taking place in Brussels on 22-23 April will seek to address this.

Other work includes legislative issues, such as updating Fedima’s code to take account of the new health claims regulation, and bringing about a worldwide ban on additives that are not approved for use in the EU or by Codex Alimentarius.