Methodologies for true cost accounting in the food sector

Several frameworks aimed at making the effects of food production and consumption on society explicit have emerged recently. This Review identifies the main ones currently in use and compares them in terms of scope, functional unit, impacts and monetization types-with an outlook to their harmonization. The recent development of true cost accounting (TCA) methodologies by various organizations has helped increase transparency in the food sector, but has also made it difficult to compare the results obtained through different methodologies. Here we review major TCA methodologies across five functional units that their assessment framework(s) apply to-namely product, organization, system, geography and investment. Our results show that the bulk of existing frameworks apply to products and/or organizations. According to publicly available documents and case studies published by the framework proponents, we found measurements of externality/dependency, the inclusion of economic, environmental and social effects, as well as the use of comparable metrics to be areas of general consensus; suggested indicators, monetization and aggregation emerged as areas of general divergence. The differences between TCA methodologies identified in this study indicate that collaboration between frameworks is key to their harmonization, ultimately making results more comparable and facilitating engagement in TCA.

Automated summary

This review examines various frameworks aimed at analyzing the societal impacts of food production and consumption, highlighting the importance of collaboration for harmonization among these frameworks. Key areas of consensus include measuring externalities/dependencies, including economic, environmental, and social effects, and using comparable metrics, while there is divergence in suggested indicators, monetization, and aggregation methods.