Coca-Cola, Heineken, Nauterra, and Mahou San Miguel will address sustainability as a holistic factor in the major technological week of the food industry in Bilbao.

ESGs, solutions, and challenges in the field of sustainability throughout the value chain of the sector will be cross-cutting themes of Pick&Pack and Food 4 Future, which will be held simultaneously in Bilbao from April 16 to 18. 

Madrid/Bilbao, February 2024 – Sustainability has emerged as a pivotal concern in the daily lives of citizens and industries alike. The food industry, encompassing all its facets, confronts the imperative of fulfilling this environmental commitment, which profoundly influences its operations. Consequently, the forthcoming editions of Food 4 Future - Expo Foodtech 2024 and Pick&Pack for Food Industry will underscore novel solutions, regulatory frameworks, technological applications, and active engagement from the food sector in addressing sustainability. These concurrent events, scheduled from April 16 to 18 at the BEC in Bilbao, are poised to position the Basque capital as the foremost technological hub in the country's food sector.

At the Food 4 Future World Summit, luminaries such as Candela Aldao, sustainability manager at Mahou San Miguel, alongside Pablo Mazo, director of Communication and Institutional Relations at Heineken, and Rodrigo Sánchez, CEO of Natur All, will elucidate sustainable sourcing, production, and packaging methodologies. Their presentations will accentuate the technical intricacies of environmentally conscientious practices.

Concurrently, Carmen Gómez-Acebo, sustainability director at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Iberia, will delve into the concept of 360º sustainability, emphasizing collaborative efforts among stakeholders to curtail waste across manufacturing, distribution, and individual consumption. Additionally, Mariví Sánchez, Director of Sustainability and Communication at Nauterra (formerly Grupo Calvo), will dissect industry strategies for waste reduction, resource optimization, and the promotion of recycling initiatives throughout product lifecycles.

Furthermore, the discourse on technology's transformative potential in advancing sustainable practices and ensuring food safety will take center stage at the Food 4 Future World Summit in 2024. In addition to this, environmental and financial ramifications of carbon footprints across the food sector's value chain, sustainable gastronomy, and food waste reduction will be scrutinized. Collaborative strategies to actualize the 'farm to table' ethos, aligned with the goals of the European Green Deal, will be deliberated upon, along with the imperative to diversify protein sources to enhance human well-being and environmental sustainability.

Other pivotal themes at the Food 4 Future forum include sustainable animal protein production, water efficiency, smart networks, renewable energies, gastronomy's role in fostering sustainability, and the ecological footprint of packaging.

Pick&Pack will play a pivotal role in addressing sustainability within the packaging and logistics industry. Given the critical importance of sustainability in the food packaging sector, it will feature prominently in many sessions of the National Congress of Packaging 4.0, an integral part of Pick&Pack. Key discussions will revolve around the assessment of mechanisms for measuring package sustainability and strategies for effectively communicating this to consumers.

Representatives from the Basque Food Cluster will delve into specific tools utilized in packaging manufacturing, usage, and disposal, with a focus on identifying practical strategies and innovative solutions to propel the packaging industry towards enhanced sustainability.

Moreover, the quest for novel materials in the food packaging sector, ones that are not only more sustainable but also possess the requisite attributes for optimal food preservation, will be a central theme. Concerns regarding the implications of decarbonization on packaging industries will also be thoroughly examined within the framework of the National Congress of Packaging 4.0.

Finally, the European Logistics Summit 2024, held concurrently with Pick&Pack, will tackle pressing issues such as the challenges associated with last-mile delivery impact and strategies for enhancing traceability to mitigate carbon footprints.