AGF at the Food, Retail, and Hospitality Show, Dublin.

The Food, Retail, and Hospitality Show, held in Dublin on 1st December highlighted the key trends and challenges facing food retailers, food service operators and hospitality providers while also showcasing the latest innovations, developments in best practice and new technological solutions available.

Sustainability was also on the menu, with AGF's Senior Sustainability Consultant, Nikita Coulter, present to deliver a talk on the Carbon Footprint of Food.

With a 2006 study by the UK’s Carbon Trust determining that the food we buy adds up to over 20% of our total individual Carbon Footprint, Nikita's talk highlighted the various steps that individuals and the food industry can take to calculate and reduce the Footprint of Food.

Available research indicates that moving toward a diet higher in plant-based foods is both healthier for us and has a lower impact on the environment. Additionally, a range of indirect factors add to the overall Footprint of Food and must be accounted for, including land used for agriculture; organic growing vs. chemical fertilizers; energy and water required for processing and storing food; food miles; packaging; serve ware, and food waste.

Monitoring, measuring and acting on all of these aspects is especially important for companies and organisations that buy, prepare, serve and potentially, waste, large volumes of food.