Developing EU environmental standards for the food, drink and milk industries: key environmental issues and data collection

Abstract

Background The European Commission organised the review of the best available techniques reference document for the food, drink and milk industries according to the provisions of the Industrial Emissions Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU). Under this policy, an exchange of information between Member States, industrial organisations, non-governmental organisations promoting the protection of the environment and the European Commission took place. Results A crucial part for developing these EU environmental standards was a systematic determination of the key environmental issues of the food, drink and milk sector. Key environmental issues were defined for emissions to air and water, and for energy and water consumption. The key environmental issues were systematically determined by using four criteria proposed by the European Commission. Moreover, a data collection procedure was designed and real-plant emissions and consumption data were obtained for the first time from a representative variety of food, drink and milk installations across the European Union. Conclusions The development of the EU environmental standards for the food, drink and milk sector are based on a systematic determination of the key environmental issues and on a representative data collection for this sector. This paper also highlights the main normative, organisational and procedural factors addressed during the environmental policy integration carried out to develop these standards.