We’re calling on food businesses and retailers to redesign our food system to allow nature to thrive.
The current food industry is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss and accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
By rethinking the ingredients they use and how their products are made, food brands and supermarkets have the power to make nature-positive food the norm. They can provide choices that are better for customers, better for farmers, and better for the climate.
What is the Big Food Redesign Challenge?
In 2023, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the Sustainable Food Trust, launched the Big Food Redesign Challenge to catalyse and inspire the food industry to build a better food system that regenerates nature, based on the principles of a circular economy.
The Challenge brings together ambitious producers, retailers, start-ups, and suppliers to design new food products – or redesign existing ones – to regenerate nature.
The Challenge is split into three phases – the Design Phase, the Production Phase and the Retail Phase. We are currently in the production phase where 150+ products from 60+ organisations are now bringing their products to life. Explore the timeline.
Redesigning Food: Behind the scenes
In the Foundation’s new video series, we go behind the scenes and watch as participants navigate the complexities of designing food for nature to thrive, push the boundaries of food design and turn obstacles into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Our Big Food Redesign report shows that applying the principles of the circular economy across all dimensions of food design – from product concept, through ingredient selection and sourcing, to packaging – unlocks substantial environmental, economic, and yield benefits. This is circular design for food:
Circular Design for Food Framework
The circular design for food framework incorporates four ingredient selection and sourcing opportunities and includes a packaging element.
A product that enters the Production Phase of the Challenge, has been assessed based on alignment with the Circular Design for Food Framework and is able to demonstrate that:
The majority of constituent ingredients are sourced from production systems that are indicative of regenerative outcomes for nature
Products fulfil at least one of the other three design opportunities identified in the circular design for food framework (use of lower impact, diverse, and upcycled ingredients)
Packaging is free from materials that are problematic and meets as many circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. goals as possible.
Most commonly identified* problematic materials include PVC, PVDC, PS, XPS, EPS**, multi-material multilayer packaging, and undetectable carbon black.
*Most commonly identified by Global Commitment signatory businesses, based on the criteria found here. **It excludes EPS packaging used for insulation (e.g. fish boxes) for which we have not assessed the recyclabilityrecyclabilityThe ease with which a material can be recycled in practice and at scale. as these represent less than 0.1% of our signatories’ portfolios.
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You can be a change-maker
A better food future starts today, with you and your team. What if food could help tackle climate change? What if it could build biodiversity? With circular design for food, we can do all this and more.
The study
The Big Food Redesign study was published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2021 and looks at the role fast-moving consumer goods companies and food retailers can play to move us towards a food system with significant positive impacts for business, people, and the environment. It explores the ways in which food products can be designed in closer collaboration with farmers, for nature. Two years on we have launched the Big Food Redesign Challenge to catalyse the development of food products that are designed for nature to thrive.
