This article will answer:

• What is pollution from food processing factories?
• How does it affect the environment?
• What is being done about it?

Pollution from food processing factories

What are food processing factories?

The term ‘food processing factory’ covers a wide range of operations that convert raw input foods into a pre-packaged snack or meal. Some food processors turn inputs like vegetables and meats into products sold in grocery stores like TV dinners. Other food processors mass produce animal products by butchering livestock and packaging their meat for sale (seen as chicken breasts or hamburger meat in supermarkets). 

For this explanation of how food processing factories pollute the environment, we’ll use the broad definition of a food processing factory: any operation that takes in raw food materials and outputs a pre-packaged product.

What is environmental pollution?

Definition: Environmental pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment, which cause adverse change. 

Simplified Definition: Environmental pollution is a term that describes anything released into the natural environment that can disrupt or cause harm to surrounding areas. This may mean a small area such as a local stream, or a large area like our atmosphere that spans the entire planet.

There are also natural forms of pollution, like volcanoes releasing dust and smoke into the air. Noise and light can also pollute the natural environment as too much of them can cause an adverse change in the surrounding area.

Most commonly, environmental pollution refers to man-made pollution that wouldn’t occur if it was not for human activities.

What pollution comes from food processing factories?

Food processing factories emit environmental pollutants in various forms. These are the most prominent types of pollution that come from food processors: 

• Greenhouse Gases –  Factories use energy to run operations such as conveyor belts, lighting, and other large machinery. To power this machinery they burn fossil fuels like coal or gas which release unnatural levels of gasses into the atmosphere. 
• Chemicals – Some food processors use man-made chemicals for sanitation and the packaging process. Excess chemicals can be released into the air or surrounding environment.  
• Waste Materials – Unused food and packaging inputs can become pollution when they are not disposed of properly.

Note: The types and levels of pollutants will vary widely by type of food processor. 

Pollution emitted by food processing factories can be classified into two broad categories:

Point Pollution – Pollution that comes from a single source. For example, releasing wastewater with chemicals into a river.

• Comes from one source
• Easier to identify and measure
• Can be just as harmful

Nonpoint Pollution – Pollution of a natural environment that comes from many sources and is hard to trace back to one point of origin. For example, emissions that come from the transportation used to source input materials for production and deliver products to final destinations. 

• Comes from many sources
• Harder to identify and measure
• Can be just as harmful

Based on their industry and operations, food processing factories can pollute the natural environment in various forms. Nonpoint pollution is harder to measure and therefore harder to regulate (more on this in the Solutions section).

How does pollution from food processing factories affect the environment?

Pollution from the food processing industry affects the environment by releasing pollutants into the air, contaminating water, and reducing biodiversity (among other ways). 

A critical way food processing leads to environmental degradation is by emitting greenhouse gases and reducing air quality. Greenhouse gas emissions from the food processing industry advance global warming by collecting in the atmosphere and trapping heat. Carbon dioxide and methane are two of the most prominent greenhouse gases emitted by the food processing industry. 

Another way the food processing industry affects the environment is by impairing global water supplies. Agriculture uses 70% of the world’s fresh water, and agricultural runoff produces 78% of ocean eutrophication. Eutrophication is the process of water overflowing with minerals and nutrients, which threatens species’ oxygen levels. In addition, as food processing factories increase their use of mineral fertilizers, water quality has been recorded to worsen. 

Moreover, large amounts of water withdrawals are necessary to process different food products. Cheese, for instance, requires a large amount of fresh water for its food production. The food processing industry threatens nations’ freshwater supplies if regulations are not in place to maintain safe pollution levels. 

In addition, pollutants from the food processing industry contribute to a loss of valuable biomass and nutrients. Contaminants such as pesticides harm wildlife and aquatic life, posing a threat to global ecosystems. Moreover, 94% of animal species alive today are livestock, meaning that the amount of wild animals has significantly decreased with the rise in animal domestication. These facts are concerning because disrupting biodiversity has drastic consequences on ecosystems that flourish when all animals are present to keep relationships in check. 

What is being done about it?

Solving environmental pollution from food processing factories requires:

• Identifying and understanding the problem
• Getting the right entities involved (factory owners and operators, communities, and government entities)
• Implementing a measurement, regulation, and corrective action plan  

Measuring levels and sources of pollution is a key step to understanding the problem. Once a factory can measure its negative environmental impact, it can find ways to reduce it and continually improve. For example, if factories monitor their levels of wastewater release into a local river, they can put protocols in place to keep levels below harmful amounts. If they exceed those amounts, processing can be stopped until the problem is identified and corrected. 

Incorporating the right stakeholders helps to make sure everyone’s interests are represented and can help put a system of checks and balances in place. It is often costly for a factory to implement measuring and prevention protocols, which disincentivizes them to do so. However, if the community in which they are operating and the appropriate government entity are involved, they can work together to implement and enforce proper regulations.

Measuring and regulating levels of pollution is most often delegated to a government body which is supposed to act as a third party between a community and a factory. The government body has the power to curb environmental pollution from factories through regulations, but in most cases the process is slow and sometimes corrupt.