KANSAS CITY — The rank order of what shapes Americans’ food and beverage decisions held firm for 20 straight years. Taste was followed by price, healthfulness, convenience and environmental sustainability, according to the Food & Health Survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC).
This year, convenience (61%) edged out healthfulness (56%), while sustainability — first included on the list in 2011, then updated to environmental sustainability in 2019 — has been consistently reported as the least influential.
“That does not mean sustainability is not relevant,” said Ashley Robertson, director of marketing at Corbion. “It means consumers increasingly expect companies to make progress without asking them to trade away taste, value, healthfulness or convenience. Consumers do not buy sustainability in isolation.”
Ravi Arora, director of sales and marketing at Global Organics, defines environmental sustainability as, “producing, processing and consuming food in a way that conserves natural resources, protects ecosystems and maintains a stable environment for future generations.”
The efforts can contribute to a consistent, affordable food supply. In the food and beverage industry, it’s a way of doing business, from field to formulation.
“Environmental sustainability is a necessary risk management practice that quietly makes favorable outcomes in the other factors — taste, price, healthfulness and convenience — more likely,” said Blaise Torrence, senior corporate sustainability analyst at Sensient Flavors & Extracts. “The business case for sustainability falls to the product developers and formulators, not to the consumers in the grocery aisle.”
It’s both an opportunity and a responsibility for brands. Even though just one in three Americans were compelled by environmental sustainability in their purchasing decisions in 2026, according to IFIC, the number was three percentage points higher than in 2019.
“The most meaningful sustainability work shouldn’t mean a compromise,” added Erika Milczek, chief executive officer at Curie Co. “It happens upstream, in how ingredients and products are made and how efficiently food moves through the supply chain, long before it reaches the shelf or enters the hands of consumers.”
Greenwashing concerns
Incorporating sustainable practices into manufacturing is the right thing to do for the planet and for future generations, said Halim Jubran, co-founder and CEO of Phytolon. For many manufacturers, it comes down to ingredient selection.
“The term sustainability, without having data to support it is just greenwashing,” Arora said. “It’s no different than the use of ‘all natural.’”
Used alone, the term sustainable is too broad to tell consumers very much. This is where data-backed claims and certifications come into the picture.
“Consumers are already pushing back against greenwashing and generic sustainability claims,” said Nicole Hill, vice president of strategy, insights and innovation at Nextin Research by MarketPlace. “In our 2026 Nextin Food survey, 16% of consumers said they want to see fewer generic sustainability claims that aren’t backed up, like ‘green’ or ‘eco-friendly.’”
Specific certifications, however, hold power. Twenty percent of consumers said they are more likely to purchase a food, beverage or supplement that’s Certified Naturally Grown, according to the Nextin Functional Ingredient survey. Fair Trade Certified, Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) and Climate Neutral Certified each sway the nutrition purchase of more than 10% of US consumers.
“Food and beverage companies have a critical role in sourcing ingredients more sustainably and communicating those efforts transparently,” said Signe Causse, global sustainability director, food ingredients, at IFF. “Doing so supports long-term business resilience, helps address environmental challenges and builds trust with consumers who increasingly expect accurate and substantiated proof points, not just sustainability claims.
“Customer requests for environmental, social and governance reporting, life cycle assessments (LCA), carbon footprint data, traceability and responsible sourcing increased almost 40% from 2024 to 2025 for IFF. As sustainability expectations continue to evolve, companies need to move beyond broad claims and be prepared to substantiate them with evidence.”
A challenge in sustainable ingredient sourcing is obtaining accurate data across the complex global supply chain. Companies must navigate varying levels of supplier maturity, data availability and reporting requirements.
Microorganisms produce targeted compounds during fermentation, often requiring less land and water. The process generates lower greenhouse emisions than conventional production methods.
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“Beyond responsible sourcing, we see significant opportunities in helping food and beverage companies translate sustainability into measurable business and consumer value,” Causse said. “One example is low-impact formulation and reformulation to include plant-based and hybrid solutions that can help reduce environmental footprints while maintaining product quality and affordability.”
On the farming side, scaling regenerative agriculture, advancing deforestation-free and traceable supply chains, and supporting biodiversity and farmer livelihoods are all measurable efforts.
“There is no single way to define and regulate sustainability,” Arora said. “The National Organic Program certification combined with fair trade certifications come close. I think ROC is the gold standard for sustainability because it uses standard organic certification as its baseline, but adds strict requirements for soil health, animal welfare and worker fairness.”
Ingredient testing
Ingredient suppliers increasingly are providing insights to help customers better understand the environmental impacts of their ingredients and processes. For Corbion, one example is its algae-derived omega-3 portfolio, where LCA data has demonstrated measurable improvements in environmental performance over time.
“Corbion also looks at sustainability through the outcomes ingredients can enable in the food system,” Robertson said. “Preservation and shelf-life solutions, for example, can help customers keep food safe and fresh for longer, thereby supporting efforts to reduce food waste. The value is not in applying a sustainability label to an ingredient. It is in connecting proven functionality with a defined and supportable outcome.”
Jubran said, “Phytolon is all about creating vibrant colors with a lighter environmental footprint. Through the fermentation of natural colors, we’re helping to build a more resilient and sustainable food system by reducing land use and water consumption compared to traditional agriculture-based colors.”
Erin Marasco, senior director of global biology at Cargill, said, “Fermentation allows us to produce certain ingredients with fewer agricultural inputs and reduces the risks associated with weather, pests and other supply chain disruptions. It’s especially valuable for compounds that occur in small quantities in plants or require significant resources to extract and purify.”
With fermentation, microorganisms produce targeted compounds, often requiring less land and water. The process generates lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional production methods.
“Stevia leaves contain dozens of sweet compounds, but only trace amounts of the best-tasting ones: Reb M and Reb D,” Marasco said. “Less than 1% of each leaf contains these components, making it hard to extract them affordably or at scale through traditional agriculture. We pioneered a new approach, producing Reb M and Reb D through fermentation.”
Arora said, “Our ROC-certified cane sugar, sourced through our longtime partner Natíve, is a strong example of what regenerative agriculture can achieve at scale.”
The open soil structure improves water absorption and can better handle intense rain events without erosion, Arora said. The improved moisture retention also helps farms perform better during drought cycles. The enhanced soil health has resulted in higher yields, with the greatest yield gains occurring on poor-quality fields. Their forest restoration efforts have created habitats supporting 23 times more biodiversity than conventional cane fields.
Enzymes are another useful tool in the sustainable ingredient toolbox. Enzymes promote sustainability and efficiency by helping extract more from raw materials, speeding up processes and reducing energy consumption.
Curie Co. developed a clean label enzyme that helps dairy manufacturers get more from the milk they already have. It helps improve yield, texture and shelf life.
“We estimate that for every 5% improvement in cheese yield using the enzyme, we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.8 million tonnes per year, based on published LCA,” Milczek said. “Better yield means less waste; longer shelf life means food stays good longer, so it can reach more people.
“When I look at the IFIC data, I don’t read it as a reason to talk less about sustainability. I read it as a call to build it in from the start, so that the sustainable choice and the affordable, nutritious choice become the same choice.”
