Considering current trends, the impact that obtaining a food product has on the environment could become a key factor in consumers’ decision to purchase one product over another in the near future. The carbon footprint of food products, based on independent assessments, could even become one of the pieces of information that producers will be required to provide on labels, alongside mandatory elements such as the ingredient list, net quantity, nutritional and energy values, etc.

In this context, we might also ask ourselves: what is the environmental cost of obtaining a ton of flour? The answer is not easy to provide because flour does not appear out of metaphysical nothingness but is the result of a chain of processes that include obtaining raw materials, ingredients, and packaging, as well as all associated logistical processes. For a proper evaluation, we should incorporate the separate effects of all the p...