9 tips to go green with natural food additives

The market for natural food additives has grown in recent years as consumer demand for natural and healthy food options has gone up. At the same time, consumers are becoming more concerned about the impact their food has on the environment. The tips that follow show you how to make the transition to a green business by incorporating sustainable practices in production, processing, logistics and packaging. These tips will also show how to boost your environmental sustainability and make your business more attractive to sustainability-minded European buyers.

1. Know how EU green legislation will impact your export business

In recent years, the European Union (EU) has introduced new policies to promote sustainable and environmentally-friendly production. The most important change is the EU Green Deal. It outlines a plan for a climate-neutral Europe, including a roadmap to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% in 2030. The EU Green Deal also aims to preserve and restore ecosystems and biodiversity, eliminate environmental pollution and create a circular economy. This is an economy based on the ‘3 R’s’ – to reduce, reuse and recycle waste – and on the use and recovery of renewable resources. Figure 1 gives an overview of the main aspects of the EU Green Deal that European companies have to apply throughout their supply chains.

The requirements of the EU Green Deal will not become mandatory until 2024, and even then these laws will apply only to the largest companies. However, the EU has also introduced a proposal on ‘Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence’ across global supply chains. Under this proposal, larger European companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent or mitigate adverse impacts on human rights and the environment throughout their supply chains. Firmenich, a leading supplier of flavourings to the European market, is a CDP supply chain member and requires its main suppliers to report their own environmental data and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire.

Another important regulation is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The EUDR aims to make sure that products imported into the EU have not contributed to deforestation or forest degradation. This means EU importers must document their products’ origin and show they are not causing forest degradation.

EU importers and food manufacturers will be holding suppliers outside Europe more accountable. As an exporter, you may be asked to provide information on what you are doing to preserve ecosystems. You will need to provide more transparency and traceability about your supply chain. The tips below explain how you can show your commitment to environmental sustainability.

Figure 1: EU Green Deal focus areas

Source: ProFound, 2023

2. Work with your producers to lay the basis for green production

Your journey towards becoming a sustainable exporter of natural food additives starts with assessing conditions at the beginning of your supply chain. Although many leading companies and governments recognise the need for urgent action to promote sustainability and biodiversity conservation at the production level, they often have no information about what is doable. This is where you can make the biggest difference, because you are most closely connected to the producers.

As an exporter with the closest links to producers, you play a key role in promoting sustainable production methods in the supply chain. You can talk to producers and inform them about changes in EU requirements under the Green Deal. Discuss sustainable harvesting options with your producers. See what is possible for them and what challenges they see to greening production. Also consult with your European clients about how to make production more environmentally friendly and how you can do this together.

This may sound like a lot of work, but showing you are aware of environmental sustainability requirements will put your company in a stronger position. It will make you more attractive to European buyers looking to source sustainably cultivated natural ingredients for the food industry.

At the same time, it may require you to change your own buying practices, by reducing your dependence on local distributors and engaging more with producers and the production level. Working closely with producers will not only help you access new green markets, but will also benefit your business in other ways.

Some benefits for exporters of working closely with producers are:

1. Builds your story about going green
   Working closely with producers lets you develop ways to truly make production more ecologically sustainable. This knowledge is the basis for telling your story about going green.
2. Better quality control
   Working closely with producers makes it easier to be sure that production meets your quality standard. It also reduces material waste.
3. Saves costs
   Working together on improving production processes can lead to a better use of raw material, higher productivity and cost savings for both parties.
4. Faster delivery
   Working closely with producers can cut delivery times and help you meet tight deadlines.
5. Better knowledge of the competition
   Closer collaboration puts you in a better position to compete with other local traders exporting the same product as you.
6. Flexibility for adaptive management
   Knowing what is happening locally will make it easier for you as an exporter to adapt to changing production conditions and to respond to any new market requirements.

A great example of a company that works closely with producers is Symrise, a global manufacturer of flavours and fragrances. They work directly with 7,000 farmers to create the best possible products. Symrise says that one of the most important factors in its successful collaboration with producers is building trust: “Proximity to the farmers helps us achieve our goals, such as being able to trace the origin of the vanilla accurately while simultaneously maintaining excellent quality.” The company also reached out to middlemen who buy beans in local markets, employing them as inspectors and supervisors in Symrise’s supply chains.

3. Offer traceable and deforestation-free products

Classic agricultural products such as fruits, nuts and oilseeds are destructive to forests and among the main causes of deforestation. As the EU tightens environmental regulations, European importers will want detailed information about all the actors in their upstream supply chains. They will ask about your sourcing locations and about the impact of production and harvesting practices on the environment. This means you have to be able to provide proof of the origin of your product and of its sustainable/deforestation-free production.

As an exporter of natural food additives, you can set up your own deforestation-free traceability system to meet strict EU sustainable supply chain requirements. Traceability is a tool that lets you prove the origin of your product and the conditions under which it was produced. You can share how your business works with producers to improve quality and how production is helping to maintain natural vegetation and forests and supporting climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation efforts.

There are many different ways to set up a traceability system. If you are new to this, don’t make it too complicated. All you need is a system that is easy for you and your suppliers to use, that documents where products are grown and who is involved. It can help to assign codes to each producer and record the volume participation of each batch, also giving this its own code. This way, you can work with the code for each batch in later processing. You can keep records on paper, but it is much more efficient and ecologically sustainable if you save this data digitally.

A good idea if you are exporting to the EU is to add the geographic location of production areas to your traceability system. This lets you prove that your production is within established agriculture zones and is not causing deforestation or forest degradation. If your production areas are near protected zones, maybe you can show that you are helping to conserve natural biodiversity by leaving natural vegetation alone and keeping it as a buffer zone. These are all positive features of your business that are part of going green, so share this information with your clients. Geographical mapping of production areas is also the basis for due diligence on land use (see Tips for being socially responsible).

The ASC-MSC Seaweed Standard focuses on the health of the world’s aquatic ecosystem by promoting environmentally sustainable use of seaweed resources. Its MSC Chain of Custody certification (page 12) guarantees that seaweed products come from a sustainable source. For seaweed products to be sold as ASC or MSC-certified, the whole supply chain must be certified. European companies wishing to sell ASC and MSC-certified seaweed therefore need a traceability system for their whole supply chain, all the way to wild harvesting operations.

The Fish Shop, a Nigerian producer and exporter of fish products, is ASC-certified. This certification lets their buyers make verifiable claims to customers about the sustainable origin of their seafood.

4. Set yourself apart from the competition: aim for nature positive, regenerative and ‘net zero’

As sustainability becomes mainstream in the European market, buyers are looking for new approaches to be sustainable. This also sets them apart from competitors. Therefore, working with suppliers who are truly committed to sustainable practices and able to communicate their unique approach can give your company a competitive advantage.

Your product may start out with a carbon footprint. For example, the production of vanilla can have a high carbon footprint due to some of the steps involved, such as the artificial methods sometimes used to speed up the drying process. However, with the right planning, vanilla can be dried using a natural source. No matter how high the carbon footprint of your natural ingredient, you should explore ways to reduce it.

Look into sustainable production concepts such as ‘nature positive’ and ‘regenerative’

Look into production methods that are nature positive, regenerative and net zero. These are ways to stop and reverse biodiversity loss, increase biomass and cut fossil energy use in production systems. If you export a natural ingredient that is wild harvested or obtained from a cultivated tree or shrub, you may already be using these methods without knowing it. If you export seaweed, you can highlight its contributions to carbon sequestration, habitat creation and marine biodiversity.

Get a clear picture of production conditions

It is a good idea to get a clear picture of the conditions under which your natural ingredients are produced (including cultivation, harvesting and processing) and any potential ‘green’ features. To do this, ask your producers to show and tell you about the full process from planting to harvesting. If you export a raw material with some environmental benefit, take advantage of this feature by highlighting it in your production story.

A good case example of an exporter that brings these concepts together is Big Tree Farms, an Indonesian producer and exporter of coconut sugar and other natural food additives. By working closely with their producers, they have been able to transform how they think about land traditionally used for personal crop and food production. Producers now use ‘backyard’ land to regeneratively farm and export a wide range of natural ingredients such as cocoa, coconuts, mangosteen, mangos and ginger. Their ‘trees of life’ – coconut trees – provide crop cover by shielding the crops underneath from intense sunlight while also drawing in moisture. To learn more, watch Big Tree Farms’ video explaining how they operate and create value for communities and the environment.

Table 1 lists some examples of ecologically sustainable features that European natural ingredient brands and retailers promote in their marketing material.

Table 1: Ecologically sustainable features of natural ingredients promoted by several companies

Source: ProFound and Christine Woda, 2023

Aliet Green is a regenerative producer and exporter of organic coconut sugar and vanilla beans. The company has been able to balance the demands of ecological conservation and social responsibility with efforts to become internationally competitive. In an interview, Lastiana Yuliandari of Aliet Green said that “agroforestry has more positive effects on the environment and allows small family farms to depend on not just 1 species or crop, but a diverse set of crops to generate new sources of income”.

5. Use green processing technologies

Going green is not only about interventions at the production level. You can also make a difference in the post-harvest processing of your natural food additives. Potential areas of intervention include energy and water efficiency and waste management practices. Take a look at the International Fragrance Association’s (IFRA) Toolbox, which provides good practice resources and tools to help you reduce your greenhouse gas emissions (see Focus Area 2). Greening processing is important for natural food additives and should target steps such as the drying of seeds and other plant parts, extraction of fats and cleaning of gums and resins, which often rely on traditional methods using wood fuel as an energy source and chemicals for extraction.

Solar drying is a low-cost and environmentally friendly method for drying natural ingredients. Solar energy is also one of the most common green technologies available to irrigate crops. For further processing, you can use steam distillation, which involves passing steam through the plant material, and cold pressing, which is a mechanical method that presses plant material to release oils. Both of these methods can boost product quality, as they use only steam, water or heat and no solvents. This also lets you market your products as organic and get higher prices in international markets.

The first step towards introducing more sustainable processing practices is to look with your client at what areas of post-harvest processing can be made more environmentally friendly. Doing this step together is crucial as it can affect the quality of the final product.

A good example of the kinds of steps European companies are taking is Firmenich’s Firgood Technology, a solvent-free extraction technology that provides 100% natural ingredients. Moreover, the waste resulting from this process is clean and can be upcycled. Although this is a very advanced technology, it may inspire you to come up with your own methods to make your processing cleaner.

6. Green your logistics: eliminate plastic packaging and use sustainable transport

Plastic pollution is a global problem. As an exporter of natural food additives, look into your options to use renewable, biodegradable and recyclable packaging to transport and export your raw materials. European governments are also taking action to combat the use of plastics in products. For example, Spain has imposed taxes on imports of plastic products. This means Spanish food manufacturers are taking steps to stop importing plastic-packaged materials. Find out about options for using renewable, biodegradable and recyclable packaging instead. These can include innovative fibres made from algae, bamboo, wood paper and carton-based materials. Glass and metal may also be options, but their weight can counteract efforts to reduce freight weight to save transport fuel.

When it comes to transporting your raw material, try to be creative. Frey&Lau has developed a way to reduce CO2 emissions by combining steps in their logistics. When they receive an order, they load their packaging waste onto the lorries that will deliver their final products. This way, they avoid transports with empty lorries. Together with their packaging supplier, they have also set up a processing plant to recycle their PE canisters. The canisters are shredded, cleaned and processed into new and inexpensive packaging materials. See if you can find other exporters operating near you with whom to share containers or group raw materials into single shipments. In view of the targets set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce the carbon intensity of international shipping by at least 40% by 2030, these efforts should be a priority for exporters.

The EU is planning to introduce carbon pricing in the maritime sector and is setting targets for major ports to supply vessels with onshore power as a measure to reduce the use of fuels that pollute the environment and harm air quality. This means European companies will be paying more attention to their carbon footprints. For this reason, you should aim to use sea freight over air freight wherever possible. This is also more cost-effective and reliable, and there are fewer limits on the transport of hazardous materials.

7. Implement circular economy practices and upcycling in your business

The circular economy plays an important part in EU Green Deal efforts to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. In March 2020, the EU introduced the Circular Economy Action Plan to support businesses that implement circular business models. Firmenich (Switzerland), one of the EU’s largest flavour and fragrance companies, has set a zero-waste-to-landfill goal for all of its manufacturing and non-manufacturing locations by 2050. Its sustainability report states that “the way to a low-carbon economy is through sustainable production patterns that produce less waste”.

The circular economy is a concept focused on minimising waste and maximising resource utilisation. By taking circular economy steps in your export business, you can reduce the negative impact of your operations on the environment while at the same time reusing waste material from your production process as a source of clean energy. Put simply, circular economy practices are a way for businesses to use waste as a resource, instead of throwing it away.

A related concept is upcycling. This refers to using by-products or waste material to make new, higher-value products instead of throwing them away. A good example is the Peel Pioneers. They extract natural ingredients from fruit peels, such as oranges and lemons, that would otherwise be thrown away, and turn them into high-value essential oils for the food industry. Watch the video on Sustainability in Food Ingredients to learn more about how to turn traditional waste materials into high-value products.