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This paper explores environmental accountability and downward accountability role of nongovernmental organisations (henceforth NGOs) under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the food and beverage industry of Nigeria. The paper relies on empirical data gathered from qualitative interviews of three stakeholders – accountants, Corporate Social Responsibility Officers (CSROs), CEOs and NGO CSROs. It employed theoretical conceptualisation of environmental accountability and NGO's downward accountability. Analysis shows that despite the existence of attributes of environmental accountability such as sense of responsibility on the part of corporations and citizens' rights to demand for and enforce accountability, passivity of citizens' right caused by vulnerability prevails. The finding also shows that downward accountability roles of NGOs in the industry have been framed as that of enhancing activities in the value chain. Part of this is RecyclePay project that funds education for the poor. Thus NGOs' downward (environmental) accountability in Nigeria has potential to promote environmental well-being, beneficiary's economic empowerment and education for the poor, thereby simultaneously addressing vulnerability. It shows that vulnerability may induce a different conceptualisation of environmental accountability than that of a normal democratic setting where the citizens are deemed to have right to demand and enforce (environmental) accountability. This paper contributes to our understanding of (environmental) accountability and downward accountability role of NGOs within an emerging market context.

This chapter explores the development of advertising regulations governing food advertising to children in Australia since the 1940s. By introducing the advertising and marketing self-regulatory system, the Australian Government is taking a neoliberal approach, advocating for the free market to initiate and sustain the country’s economic development, instead of greater government regulation. By examining the primary and secondary literature, such as government reports and research, and newspaper and academic articles, this chapter outlines different regulatory initiatives adopted by both the government and food industry to limit food and beverage advertising to children on television and online, in order to prevent obesity rates increasing in children. This chapter synthesizes and critically evaluates food industry and public health studies, government and non-government reviews, and other research studies to evaluate the influence of self-regulation on Australian television food advertising within the neoliberal context since the 1990s. It contributes to the literature on food advertising regulations for children in Australia by offering evidence of how the government, public health authorities and the food industry have attempted to keep pace with changes in the advertising, marketing and media industries by developing and reviewing advertising codes. It identifies the loopholes that exist in these self-regulatory codes and concludes that Australia’s current advertising regulatory arrangements are failing to protect our children from unhealthy food marketing on television, especially on relatively under-regulated online platforms such as social media and branded websites. The issues identified in this chapter could aid the food and beverage industry, as well as the self-regulatory system, to offer comprehensive and applicable solutions to combat Australia’s obesity crises by implementing new legislations that align with different marketing practices.

This chapter examines the interrelationships between internationalization and product diversification among the world's l35 largest food and beverage enterprises. Based on the argument that food and beverage enterprises enjoy economies of scope when moderately diversifying into new countries and product areas, but encounter resource constraints when extremely diversified and internationalized, we expect to find an inverted U-shaped relationship between the two strategies. Nevertheless, we find that the relationships between the two strategies show both an inverted U-shaped (when geographic diversification is the dependent variable and product diversification the independent one) and a U-shaped pattern (when product diversification is the dependent variable and geographic diversification the independent one). These results imply that the relationships between internationalization and product diversification among food and beverage enterprises are more complex than currently conceived.

We examine how third party certification with quality management standards and mutual recognition of certification through international agreements of accreditation bodies creates trust between trading partners and increases bilateral trade. We focus on the food, beverage, and tobacco industry and use augmented gravity models for the 2000–2008 period. Our results show that quality management certifications are positively correlated with bilateral trade. Certifications help to reduce information asymmetries and signal commitment to quality production processes. Moreover, our results show that mutual recognition of certification has a positive and significant effect on trade. Members of the mutual recognition agreement for quality management standards have higher bilateral trade flows than non-members. Mutual recognition is in particular beneficial for markets access in high-income countries. We conclude that technical cooperation programs for developing countries’ conformity assessment services might be effective means to increase trade performance of developing countries.

This chapter aims to analyze how digital entrepreneurship is developed in the food industry of the European Union, comparing digital skills and big data indicators in all enterprises and the food industry. Using Eurostat Digital Economy and Society database, the authors obtained data between 2016 and 2020 – including the indicators: information and communications technology (ICT) specialists and ICT training to digital skills, and smart devices, geolocation, and social media to big data assessment. Furthermore, we compared all enterprises with those that manufacture beverages, food, and tobacco products. The authors identified that the food sector is still behind the other sectors regarding digitalization. Consequently, this research contributes to understanding entrepreneurs’ digital skills and how them relate to the use of big data in the food industry. Moreover, it also allows identifying the digital indicators of the food industry as less innovative than other industry digital indicators.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a cloud system that saves energy by being involved in the decision-making process of machines. By this means, machines create an environment of direct interaction without the need for explicit instructions. In this chapter, answers have been sought to the questions of what kind of research has been done on IoT-based technological devices, and how IoT-based technologies are effective in sustainable food production. The systematic literature review examined the scientific research on IoT and Food in the range of 2010–2022 in Scopus. The general framework of the research has been carried out in the context of 6Ws (who, when, where, what, why, and how), which is one of the systematic literature reviews. The results obtained have been analyzed and interpreted in the MAXQDA 2020 qualitative data analysis program. In the findings obtained, it has been determined that IoT and food have gained importance worldwide, especially in England, India, and China. Furthermore, it has been determined that most of the studies on IoT are based on case studies, and all the articles examined are collected in three main focus points. Subcodes have been created under the main codes ‘Food Supply Chain, Smart and Sustainable Agriculture ve Waste Management’, and problem points have been tried to be customized.

The present chapter examined the behavior of relative wage rate, productivity of labor, and total factor productivity growth (TFPG) and also attempted to explore the causal relationship between relative wage rate and productivity of labor as well as relative wage rate and TFPG in food and beverage industry in India over the period 1980–1981 to 2017–2018. The result of Sen (2003) approach of endogenous structural break suggests that the series of relative wage rate, productivity of labor, and TFPG follows trend stationary process. A significant break is found for all the three aforementioned variables, being 1984–1985 for relative wage rate and productivity of labor whereas 2007–2008 for TFPG. For the three variables, growth rate has increased after the break. Bidirectional causality between relative wage rate and productivity of labor as well as relative wage rate and TFPG is evident.

Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in interest about fraud in food supply chain. Victims of food fraud and counterfeiting can be different actors in the supply chain: distributors, retailers and, most importantly, customers. Victims of food fraud face not only economic losses, but also health and safety risks when handling or consuming fraudulent products. The aim of this paper is to present the situation regarding counterfeiting and fraud in the food supply chain from a theoretical and practical point of view. The attitudes and opinions of consumers, experts in the field and retailers on the occurrence of food fraud and counterfeiting were explored. The results of an online survey of 326 consumers in Croatia showed that their awareness of food fraud is low. Most of them are only partially familiar with food fraud or do not know anything about this issue. The respondents are most familiar with mislabelling of organic products, meat packaging date fraud, and misuse of geographical indications (PDO/PGI). Consumers have low trust in all organisations that should protect them from food fraud (e.g. Croatian national institutions and authorities). A survey with eight food experts (olive oil, wine, milk and dairy products, honey, strong alcoholic beverages) found that they very rarely encounter food fraud in their work, usually two or more times a year. Retailers are aware of the existence of food fraud, but still do not take measures beyond the usual level in their quality assurance systems. To raise awareness of food fraud, education of all stakeholders by relevant institutions is needed.

Catering business is one of the most prominent and sought-after business investment in Dehradun, given the number of people who have a busy lifestyle. This fact gets more influential as Shugan Group is a catering company that serves the Dehradun market, a valley in the foothills of Shivalik Mountain Range in the state of Uttarakhand. Dehradun enjoys the benefit of being the Capital of Uttarakhand. The catering companies offer a lot of employment while promising delicious food to the stakeholders. Many individuals rely on this sector through food trucks, small shops or through full-fledged catering service providing companies. The group offers innovative and interesting food options for Doonites through their catering services including a lot of regional food options. Traditionally, the catering services in the town comprises handful options to deliver in the form of just food items. The catering services now involve a lot of service elements also including serving of the dishes, ambience and all inclusive of personnel factors. Many individuals assume that mess food is everyday kind of boring food. This assumption definitely holds true throughout the student community who are the major benefactors of the catering services as Dehradun is an education hub in the country. The new food offerings therefore face a lot of change as some of the ingredients definitely are the everyday incorporated ones. In the past couple of years, the catering services concept had gained acceptance for investment because of rise in demand for variety to be provisioned in the offerings as students hold diverse demographical differences. A lot of significance has been given to the likeness of various food options. Shugan Group wishes to inject a new life into the student catering market, leveraging the culinary skills of their handpicked chefs to develop creative new catering options. The advanced skills of chefs, industry insight of the group and an already existing market opportunity will allow the group to showcase its potential. Shugan Group is a start-up company. Marketing is critical to its success and future profitability. It offers creative gourmet for mess catering for a wide range of events and everyday eating options. The basic market need is high quality and creative food options. Having worked in the industry for the past few years and witnessing the dynamic environment including rise in disposable incomes, rise in consumer awareness, consumer’s keenness to eat new delicacies every day and desire to purchase quality food, the group has invested a lot in understanding what the consumers want. The performance of the group has been moderately incremental. After holding qualitative wisdom on the requirements of the market, Shugan Group is currently in the speculative stage in terms of being a caterer. The group wishes to reasonably understand the option that it should consciously adopt in terms of being modest about thinking only of financial benefit, with reasonable expansion every year only for the sake of being financially viable or build a strong brand and start getting people to increase word of mouth thereby bringing organic growth.