EUSurvey - Survey https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/printcontribution?code=ab51cfce-3c8e...

* Contribution ID: ab51cfce-3c8e-4784-bae1-8a9c6bc9d8de

Date: 27/09/2022 13:05:20

Sustainable food system - setting up an EU framework

(Survey for SMEs)
Fields marked with * are mandatory.

Introduction

In the context of the ‘‘European Green Deal”, the European Commission adopted a Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F), which aims to
support the transition to a sustainable food system.

The F2F Strategy announced an initiative for a Framework for Sustainable Food Systems (“FSFS”) which the European
Commission will put forward in 2023. This survey will gather the views of small and medium-size enterprises to this policy
initiative.

The FSFS will be a horizontal framework law, aiming to facilitate the transition to sustainability and ensure that food placed on
the EU market become increasingly sustainable. It will lay down definitions, general principles and objectives and set the
foundation for requirements and responsibilities to be defined for all actors in the EU food system. It will also include provisions
for a food sustainability labelling framework and provisions for sustainable public procurement of food. It will seek to empower
consumers and public authorities to make sustainable food choices. New governance systems for a more active involvement of
citizens and stakeholders will also be introduced through the FSFS.

The image below displays the policy measures considered for the FSFS, including so called “push” and “pull” measures:

Push provisions would introduce minimum requirements for food products and related operations. They will have as an
objective to gradually exclude the least sustainable operations from the market.

For the food operations and products produced in accordance with the minimum requirements, pull provisions would set
incentives for producers to go beyond the minimal requirements, for instance:
A sustainability labelling framework would stimulate demand for sustainably produced food and hence, incentivise the
choice for placing on the market food produced with higher sustainability standards.
Public procurement requirements would improve the availability and price of sustainably produced food and promote
healthy and sustainable diets in public canteens.

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EUsurvey does not require you to fill in the full survey in one go. It allows you to save your survey responses and continue
replying at a later stage as well. Please make sure you submit your replies by 30 October 2022.

Please note that the information provided, and the opinions expressed in this survey will be strictly confidential and will not be
disclosed to any third party except the contractor of this study and the European Commission. All the information collected will
be presented in an aggregated manner to make the identification of respondents impossible, in respect of all applicable data
protection regulations.

Glossary/or explanation of terms used in the survey

The questionnaire makes repeated references to a number of terms, for which it is useful to give indicative explanations upfront
(i.e. working definitions for the purpose of this questionnaire):

Food system: the food system is understood to include all actors, resources, and activities relevant for the production and
consumption of food and beverages and their associated wastes, as well as their impact on the economy, environment and
society (including health). It considers the processes, infrastructures and interactions involved in feeding the population.

The notion of food environment in this questionnaire includes physical and digital dimensions. The physical food environment
can be defined as the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural contexts in which people engage with the food system to
make their decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food. The digital food environment refers to the online settings
that influence people’s food and nutrition choices and behaviour. They include social media, digital health promotion
interventions, digital food marketing and online food retail.

Sustainable food system [SFS]: for the purpose of this survey, the following definition is used: “A sustainable food system for
the EU is one that: provides and promotes safe, nutritious and healthy food of low environmental impact for all current and
future EU population in a manner that itself also protects and restores the natural environment and its ecosystem services, is
robust and resilient, economically dynamic, just and fair, and socially acceptable and inclusive. It does so without compromising
the availability of nutritious and healthy food for people living outside the EU, nor impairing their natural environment.”

Sustainability is understood to have three dimensions, each of them including multiple aspects, for which examples are
provided below:
Economic dimension: competitiveness of products/services on international markets, attractiveness of
products/services (e.g. sales volume, company reputation, price premium, product differentiation), fixed and variable

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costs of businesses, profit/income, transparency, internal market functioning and levelling the playing field in the food
supply chain, introduction/uptake of innovation and research, fairness of trading practices)
Environmental dimension: climate change mitigation & adaptation actions, water resource management and
conservation, circular economy and waste management, pollution prevention and control, healthy natural habitats
(biodiversity)
Social dimension: health (incl. healthy diets promotion, such as through reformulation of the composition of products),
employment (number, type and quality of jobs), level of wages, quality of relations with employees, buyers and/or
suppliers, animal welfare practices

Structure of the survey

The survey consists of two sections. To ensure that a minimum level of needed information is collected, certain questions of this
survey are mandatory.

I. Information about the business or organisation you represent (mostly mandatory)

II. Policy areas envisaged in the FSFS (voluntary questions)
a. Section 1. Sustainability requirements
b. Section 2: Sustainability labelling
c. Section 3: Sustainable public procurement

I. Information about the business or organisation you represent

1. If you received this questionnaire from your local Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) member, please enter the EEN
member’s 7-digit ID Number (EEN members themselves may also reply, but you do not need to be a member of the EEN to
participate in this survey)
7 character(s) maximum

2. Where is your company’s/ association’s headquarter located? (Choose one)

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania

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Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Other (please specify)

If "other", please specify.

3. Where does your company/ the members of your association operate? (Choose one)
Single EU Member State
Multiple EU Member States
EU Member State(s) and non-EU Countries

4. Under which of the following categories does your company fall? (Choose one)
Primary producers of food and feed
Manufacturers of food and feed
Wholesale of food and feed
Retail of food and feed
Restaurant/catering services
Traders (including imports/exports) of food and feed
Agri-food Input providers (for crop or livestock production)
Other input providers (e.g., food contact materials, equipment and machinery, etc.)
Other food services
Financial actors
Knowledge providers
Transport or logistic operators
Advisors
Waste management operators
Other business operator [please specify]

If "other business operator", please specify.

5. Which product group(s) is the main focus of your company? (Choose all that apply)
Animal feed
Other inputs for primary production of food (fertilizers, pesticides etc)
Meat and meat products
Fish, seafood and aquaculture products
Fresh fruit and vegetables

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Fruit and vegetables preparations

Oil/fats and spreadable fats
Milk/dairy products
Bread and bakery ware
Cereal and cereal products including breakfast cereals
Pasta
Confectionary
Ready meals, soups, sandwiches
Vegetable protein-based products
Soft drinks
Other non-alcoholic beverages
Wine or aromatised wines
Beers
Spirit drinks
Other alcoholic beverages
Food ingredients
Cellular agriculture
Other food products
Nuts and seeds
Not applicable

6. How many employees does your company have? (Choose one)

Self-employed (micro enterprise)
Micro - 0 - 9
Small - 10 - 49
Medium - 50 - 249

II. FSFS Policy areas

1: Sustainability Requirements going beyond legal requirements

This section collects information about the existing sustainability approaches that your business implements going beyond legal
requirements, incentives that can drive your business towards more sustainability and the barriers that hinder your business’
progress to more sustainability. The existing sustainability standards could include private or public standards – such as codes
of conduct, product standards, process standards, product grading – which address at least one dimension of sustainability.
Sustainability requirements may stem from applicable sectoral legislation. Note that this excludes labels, addressed in Section 2
of this questionnaire.

7. To what extent are you voluntarily implementing today sustainability approaches which go beyond legal requirements?
Hardly ever
Occasionally
Sometimes
Frequently
Almost always
Not applicable /Don't know

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8. What barriers prevent you from transitioning towards sustainability? [Tick all that apply]
I don’t understand what sustainability encompasses.
The uptake of sustainable practices by producers and food system operators is not even across the EU so it does not
encourage smaller businesses to take up such practices.
There is a lack of incentives (e.g. financial, research and innovation) for actors of the food system to develop/produce
/place sustainable food on the EU market.
There is not enough market demand for more sustainable products.
There is no consumer willingness to pay for more sustainable products.
Responsibilities for the transition towards sustainable food systems are not adequately defined and allocated to the
different actors and segments of the food system.
My business does not get a fair share of the added value in the market where I operate, so I do not have sufficient
resources to transition to sustainability.
Due to the imbalances in market power in the food chain, I cannot exert enough influence on the contracts I am bound
by, to implement sustainability approaches.
I cannot stand the competition with imported food which, although may be produced with lower or no sustainability
standards, is cheaper.
There is insufficient transparency on sustainability aspects across the food system, as not all actors can or choose to
communicate information on sustainability.
As an SME I cannot exert significant influence on the choices of consumers, which are influenced by various factors and
can result in unsustainable purchasing decisions and consumption patterns.
Food marketing and promotion practices in the market today are not generally supporting sustainable products, so as an
SME I do not feel that striving to be more sustainable would improve my competitiveness in the market.
Other, please specify.
Don’t know.

9. What incentives would best support you in making your processes and products more sustainable? Choose from 1 -- 5 [Tick
all that apply]

Financial assistance (grants or subsidies)

Training/knowledge improvement/guidance on implementing sustainability approaches

Partnerships

Transitional periods

Sector-specific measures

Tax reliefs

Improved cooperation between companies across the food chain so new processes can be
developed/applied

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Demonstration of new technologies / processes

Advice on funding and financial planning

Clearer rules on sustainability

Expectation of higher returns

Sustainability self-assessment tool

Other (please specify)

If "other", please specify

2: Sustainability labelling

The following part of the questionnaire collects information about the existing and potential sustainability labelling that your
company or the companies represented by your association implements:
A sustainability label covers consumer information on at least two of the following sustainability aspects of food
products: nutritional, animal welfare, socio-economic (other than nutritional and animal welfare) and environmental
aspects (including climate aspects).
A signalling (positive endorsement) label (in most cases a logo) is applied only to the products reaching and/or
exceeding a specific threshold or meeting specific conditions (e.g. organic label, fair trade label)
A graded (scoring) label can be applied to all products and gives a rank depending on how they perform with regards to
criteria (e.g. nutriscore, ecoscore).

10. If your company offers products carrying sustainability, environmental, socio-economic or animal welfare label(s), could you
please specify the label(s) they carry? [Tick all that apply]
Graded label Signalling label

Sustainability

Environmental

Socio-economic

Animal welfare

My products do not carry such labels

11. What was the approximate cost (in Euros) when introducing this (these) label(s)? [if your company has implemented more
than once such a label, please consider the average costs]
Total average costs (EUR)

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Costs of designing/printing the product label

Costs of assessing the performance(s)/impact(s) of the product
Costs related to the adjustment of operations/products to requirements
Costs related to certification/verification/ audit
Costs related to the labelling scheme/use of the label
Others (please specify)

12. If your company offers products carrying sustainability, environmental, socio-economic or animal welfare label(s), has your
company obtained returns in the following domains from implementing this label/these labels? [Tick all that apply.]
To a To To a No Don't
large some minor retur know/Don
extent extent extent ns 't answer

Economic returns (e.g. higher prices charged for the product

in the market, access to new markets, increased sales
volume, increased reputation of the company/brand)

Environmental returns (e.g. decreased resource

consumption, decreased emissions, decreased waste or food
waste generation)

Social returns (including health) (e.g. higher employment,

improved wages, benefits and quality of work in my
businesses, healthier/reformulated products, improved animal
welfare)

My products do not carry such labels

13. How relevant are the following reasons in your company for not introducing a sustainability label?
Not Don't
Somewhat Import Very
important at know/Don't
important ant important
all answer

No official sustainability label

Lack of sustainability data necessary for

the labelling of my products

Too expensive

Too complicated

Lack of training/knowledge/guidance

Not relevant for my product(s)

No demand from partners in the value

chain

No consumer demand

My company has already introduced such

a label/labels on its products

Others (please specify)

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If "others", please specify.

3: Sustainable public procurement

14. If you participated or considered participating in a tender for public procurement of food products, did this tender include any
sustainability criteria (for example environmental criteria, social or health related technical specifications, selection or award
criteria)? [Tick all that apply]
No
Yes, environmental criteria
Yes, social aspects besides health (e.g. in relation to child labour, social inclusion, gender equality, training
opportunities)
Yes, health/nutritional aspects

15. [If yes in Q14] Was participating in tenders with sustainability-related criteria challenging?
Highly challenging
Somewhat challenging
No different than other tenders
Somewhat beneficial
Highly beneficial

Elaborate if you wish

500 character(s) maximum

16. What challenges do you think that the application of sustainability-related criteria in public tenders for the acquisition of food
products would bring to your company? [Tick all that apply]
Criteria can become too demanding and complicated
Significant decrease of profit margins
Moderate decrease of profit margins
Legal complexity
Change in business operations to comply with the tender specifications
Adapting sourcing strategies
Lack of sufficient supply of sustainable products
Not applicable
Other challenges

If "other challenges", please specify.

17. What benefits do you think that the application of sustainability-related criteria in public tenders for the acquisition of food
products would bring to your company:
Significant increase of profit margins
Moderate increase of profit margins
Development of new business opportunities
Improved reputation

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Not applicable
Other benefits

If "other benefits", please specify.

18. Is there any other element related to the Framework for Sustainable EU food system that you would like to bring up?
1,000 character(s) maximum

In case you would like to get in touch, and be kept informed of potential later activities – such as other surveys or workshops –
during the policy-making process please write to:
sante-consult-d1@ec.europa.eu

Contact
sante-consult-d1@ec.europa.eu

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