The Spread of Sustainability Reporting in the Italian Food Manufacturing Context

The current evolution of EU regulation in terms of sustainability of practices and reporting are now imposing to a greater number of operators reports on their sustainability performance. The recently approved of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, based on the 2021 EU Commission proposal, implement prior regulation, both at European (Directive 2014/95/EU) and national level (Legislative Decree 254/2016), and extending the requirements in terms of non-financial disclosure. This chapter investigates and maps the diffusion of sustainability reporting within the Italian food manufacturing sector in order to contextualise the current level of disclosure for each category of food products. The dimensions involved regard, namely, the number of sustainability reports available, the presence/absence of external assurance, the material topics identified, the identification of qualitative and quantitative targets and their association to the goals of the UN 2030 agenda, the presence of (products or processes) certifications, DPO or PGI products in their portfolio and the reference to a written Ethical Code or the model 231/2001.