Evaluating the Sustainability of Agri-Food Businesses and New Food Product Development from North-West Europe to South-East Asia

Responsible modern agri-food production and supply chains must consider the long-term consequences of their business activities through sustainability assessments. This case study explores a business-level approach to considering and integrating the principles of sustainability into new food product development. Using the FAO Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems Guidelines, three Thai agri-food enterprises were subjected to preliminary mapping and contextualisation (no indicator-level scoring or aggregate SAFA performance rating was undertaken) across good governance, environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being. The cases demonstrate the limitations of treating sustainability as a single-issue concern, such as carbon footprinting or ecolabelling, rather than as an integrated business consideration. The enterprise provides a practical organisational unit for integrating operational, supply-chain, social, economic and governance evidence, while product-level assessments provide complementary evidence for specific new food product development decisions. Hence, we propose incorporating sustainability assessments into the concept development stage by evaluating the impact of new products at the overall business level rather than the new product proposal in isolation. The Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems framework is considered suitable for current application in agri-food businesses but requires continued international professional and academic support through knowledge exchange activities to increase awareness and to implement effectively in resource-constrained SMEs.