Sustainable operations management: practices and measures in the food industry

Abstract

The food industry represents an important economic activity, not only because it is related to basic physiological processes required for human survival but also due to the considerable losses from wasted natural resources identified in food production. Thus, this industry generates significant environmental, social and economic impacts, ranking it among the sectors with the highest greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Accordingly, this article aims to identify sustainable practices and measures that are being adopted by organisations in the food industry. This research followed a theoretical-conceptual method by conducting a bibliographic survey of research on sustainable actions adopted by companies in the food industry. A content analysis was conducted by extracting twenty articles published between 1999 and 2012 to provide information about sustainable actions reported by authors. The results highlight the important practices and measures identified, categorise the prominent studies in this sector and propose a research agenda for future studies.