# Food industry
The food industry is the set of companies involved in the production, processing, supply, preservation, packaging, and distribution of food products, everything that stands between the primary producer and the consumer.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) In the broader sense used by the European Commission and the UN Food Systems Summit, it sits within the agri-food sector, which spans farmers, food processing, beverage production, retail, wholesale, food service, and their suppliers of seeds, machinery, packaging, transport, finance, and logistics.[2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food) The UN Food Systems Summit's Scientific Committee defines the encompassing food system as including "the production, transport, the agroindustry that processes and produces, food marketing activities and consumption of food, as well as the impacts on the environment, health and society."[3](https://www.teseopress.com/theglobalfoodsystem/chapter/chapter-i-the-global-food-system-evolution-and-analysis/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scope | Companies in production, processing, supply, preservation, packaging, and distribution of food; part of the wider agri-food sector that also covers farming, retail, wholesale, and food service[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) • [2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food) |
| European scale | The EU agri-food ecosystem employs 16 million people and contributes €603 billion, 6.4% of the EU's total economy; large enterprises employ 40% of the workforce and generate over half of turnover[2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food) |
| Global trade | The value of global food and agricultural trade reached USD 1.9 trillion in 2023[4](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/07/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2025-2034_3eb15914/601276cd-en.pdf) |
| Import bill | FAO estimated the 2025 global food import bill at USD 2.22 trillion, up 7.9 percent from the previous year[5](https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-food-outlook--global-food-commodity-market-trends-face-rising-geopolitical-and-weather-risks/) |
| Climate footprint | The food and beverage industry accounts for an estimated 20% to 30% of total global greenhouse gas emissions[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550926001545) |
| Food waste emissions | Global food loss and waste emitted 9.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent in 2017, about half of the food system's annual greenhouse gas emissions[7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00710-3) |
| Safety management | The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) framework is considered the most effective approach for systematically managing foodborne safety risks across the supply chain, though adoption is often incomplete[8](https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.06049) |
## Historical development
Food has not passed directly from producer to consumer since cities and markets emerged in ancient times, and the sector has grown in importance ever since.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) Food systems were local or regional for most of history, acquiring national and only later worldwide dimensions as markets developed; a global food system emerged, driven by an increasingly integrated world economy with lower transport and transaction costs.[3](https://www.teseopress.com/theglobalfoodsystem/chapter/chapter-i-the-global-food-system-evolution-and-analysis/) Not until the railroad and the steam engine, partway through the nineteenth century, did the world's food system become truly international.[9](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED274603.pdf)
**The industrial revolution.** Beginning in the 18th century, mechanized production, mass production techniques, and food preservation transformed the sector. A decisive 19th-century breakthrough was industrial canning and preservation, which enabled long-term storage and efficient long-distance transport while limiting losses. [Mass production](https://www.edgepedia.org/mass-production) of processed, canned, and packaged foods laid the foundations for agro-industrial conglomerates and global supply chains, reduced seasonal variation in diets, and contributed to improved health and longer life expectancy in [Western Europe](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-europe) and North America.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) The industrialization of the North American and European economies from the nineteenth century shaped the Western commercial diet of energy-dense, high-fat and high-sugar foods, as the industry responded to people leaving agricultural life to work in cities and factories.[10](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/794741468780597324/pdf/289100WHO1Food0Policy1whole.pdf)
**The Green Revolution.** Between the 1960s and the 1990s, high-yielding crop varieties, high-performance farm machinery, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers significantly raised crop yields and productivity, addressing food shortages and famines in developing countries and helping millions escape poverty and hunger. The same changes created dependence on fertilizers, herbicides, and fossil fuels, and brought soil degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss; the cost of adopting modern technologies also amplified inequality among small-scale farmers.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry)
**Fast food and the twentieth century.** The rise of fast food and large restaurant chains in the mid-twentieth century transformed eating habits, with standardized menus and mass production offering homogeneous meals worldwide; the forerunner is usually identified as White Castle's industrial hamburgers, produced in the United States as early as the 1920s, with fast food spreading globally in waves from the 1950s to the 1990s.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) Science and technology also revolutionized the industry through chromatographs, mass spectrometers, and recombinant DNA techniques for analyzing food components, and through sensors monitoring production stages in real time.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) Wartime demand for safe, transportable rations during the Second World War spurred innovations in formulation, preservation, and packaging.[11](https://books.rsc.org/books/monograph/1847/chapter/2265680/The-R-evolution-in-Global-Food-Production-and)
## Structure of the supply chain
Manufacturing businesses combine produce from farms and primary producers, processing and adding value to foodstuffs before the finished packaged product reaches consumers, typically via retailers or food service groups.[12](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/food-market) The agri-food sector explicitly excludes activities such as forestry, logging, equestrian work, transport solely related to food delivery, agricultural chemicals, hunting, and cooking.[2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food)
The sector is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises in number, but large enterprises employ 40% of the European workforce and generate over half of the sector's turnover.[2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food) Production has been steadily increasing over the years, with minor fluctuations during economic crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, while the sector faces cost pressures from inflation, energy prices, labor costs, and consumer demand for environmentally responsible products.[2](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food)
## Market concentration
Consolidation and vertical coordination in the food chain have made potential market power abuses by large manufacturers and retailers a policy concern worldwide, in terms of impacts on farmer and consumer welfare and sector efficiency.[13](https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023312) A review of the evidence concludes that market power may be less than highly concentrated structures would predict, because downstream buyers internalize long-run pricing implications, powerful manufacturers and retailers countervail each other's power, and multistore, multiproduct retailers make complex pricing decisions.[13](https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023312)
Concentration in meat processing drew particular scrutiny during the pandemic. In December, a White House analysis found that Tyson, JBS, Marfrig, and Seaboard, four of the biggest companies in meat processing, had together raised their gross profits by over 120% relative to pre-pandemic levels, and that their combined net income had grown by 500%.[14](https://time.com/6150004/meat-monopolies-congress/) In European markets, an assessment of major food and beverage manufacturers found that the most sold product categories and major manufacturers were similar across Europe, with moderately to highly concentrated product markets.[15](https://www.sciensano.be/nl/biblio/interplay-between-market-concentration-and-diversity-food-environment-related-commitments-and)
## Sustainability and environmental impact
The food and beverage industry's environmental impact is substantial, with one recent review citing estimates that it accounts for between 20% and 30% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.[6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550926001545) Food loss and waste is a major component: global food loss and waste emitted 9.3 Gt of CO2 equivalent from supply chain and waste management systems in 2017, about half of the food system's annual emissions, with sources distributed across nine post-farming stages and varying by country, region, and food category.[7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00710-3) It has been estimated that one-third of global food is lost or wasted.[16](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033228)
A current transformation, described by the Alimentarium museum as a "sustainability revolution," is characterized by growing demand for food that is healthy, environmentally and socially responsible, low in carbon footprint, low in waste and non-recyclable packaging, and economical in water use, driven by evolving legislation, environmental and health concerns, and civil society pressure. The rise of plant-based diets and consumer demand for transparency about production methods are significant trends within it.[1](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry) The EAT-Lancet Commission estimated that about 15 million deaths could be avoided each year and agricultural emissions could drop by 15% if people worldwide shifted to healthier, predominantly plant-based diets, with increased crop productivity and reduced food waste potentially raising the emissions reduction to 20%.[17](https://apnews.com/article/04e3edb6b2de628e6238c70ca9f075e9)
Assessment methods have diversified accordingly. A systematic review of multi-criteria decision analysis for food sustainability identified 42 case-study articles and classified methods, indicators, and stakeholders; a review of 132 eco-efficiency studies (2015–2025) under ISO 14045 principles found a strong dominance of ratio-based, environmental–economic evaluations concentrated at the production stage, with nutritional and product-quality indicators significantly underrepresented.[18](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724043833) • [6](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550926001545)
## Resilience and trade
The industry's global integration cuts both ways. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 labor shortages, income declines, and supply chain breakdowns added 118 million people to the chronically hungry, the fastest rise in history attributed to the pandemic, while the diversity of energy sources used by agriculture, biodiversity in food and agriculture, crop diversity in major exporting regions, and diet diversity were all declining.[19](https://time.com/6186174/global-food-system-diversify/) Trade remains integral to agrifood systems, linking producers and consumers across the globe; the 2023 trade value of USD 1.9 trillion reflects that integration.[4](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/07/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2025-2034_3eb15914/601276cd-en.pdf) FAO's 2026 Food Outlook judged the outlook for global food commodity markets relatively favorable, with 2026/27 cereal production forecast to remain historically elevated though easing from record highs, while flagging risks from weather, energy and fertilizer market volatility, geopolitical tensions, and trade policy uncertainty.[5](https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-food-outlook--global-food-commodity-market-trends-face-rising-geopolitical-and-weather-risks/)
## References
1. [The food industry, Alimentarium](https://www.alimentarium.org/en/basic-page/food-industry)
2. [Agri-food, European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems, European Commission](https://monitor-industrial-ecosystems.ec.europa.eu/industrial-ecosystems/agri-food)
3. [The global food system: evolution and analysis, TESEO Press](https://www.teseopress.com/theglobalfoodsystem/chapter/chapter-i-the-global-food-system-evolution-and-analysis/)
4. [OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2025-2034](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/07/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2025-2034_3eb15914/601276cd-en.pdf)
5. [FAO Food Outlook: Global food commodity market trends face rising geopolitical and weather risks](https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-food-outlook--global-food-commodity-market-trends-face-rising-geopolitical-and-weather-risks/)
6. [Rethinking eco-efficiency in agri-food system, Sustainable Production and Consumption](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550926001545)
7. [Cradle-to-grave emissions from food loss and waste represent half of total greenhouse gas emissions from food systems, Nature Food](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00710-3)
8. [Enhancing Food Safety in Supply Chains: The Potential Role of Large Language Models in Preventing Campylobacter Contamination, arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.06049)
9. [The History of the World Food System, ERIC](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED274603.pdf)
10. [World Bank document on food policy and the development of the Western commercial diet](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/794741468780597324/pdf/289100WHO1Food0Policy1whole.pdf)
11. [The R(evolution) in Global Food Production and Consumption, Royal Society of Chemistry](https://books.rsc.org/books/monograph/1847/chapter/2265680/The-R-evolution-in-Global-Food-Production-and)
12. [Food Market, ScienceDirect Topics](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/food-market)
13. [Increasing Concentration in the Agricultural Supply Chain, Annual Review of Resource Economics](https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023312)
14. [Meat Prices Are Going Up. Congress Is Trying to Do Something About It, TIME](https://time.com/6150004/meat-monopolies-congress/)
15. [The interplay between market concentration and diversity, food environment related commitments and associated practices of major food companies, Sciensano](https://www.sciensano.be/nl/biblio/interplay-between-market-concentration-and-diversity-food-environment-related-commitments-and)
16. [Food Loss and Waste: Measurement, Drivers, and Solutions, Annual Review of Environment and Resources](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033228)
17. [A recipe for avoiding 15 million deaths a year and climate disaster is fixing food, scientists say, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/04e3edb6b2de628e6238c70ca9f075e9)
18. [Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for sustainability assessment in food sector, Science of The Total Environment](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724043833)
19. [The Ukraine Crisis Shows How Fragile Our Food Systems Are, TIME](https://time.com/6186174/global-food-system-diversify/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Food, cooking and hospitality › Food industry, science, safety, and policy*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license