Beneo and BrightWolves push portfolio-wide LCAs as transparency demands grow

Food and beverage manufacturers now want transparency into how ingredient suppliers calculate environmental data, and not just receive the final figure, according to Beneo and the sustainability consultancy BrightWolves. The companies say tighter EU rules on environmental claims, such as the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo), which came into effect on September 27, 2026, are increasing the demand.

Beneo has responded by moving its entire ingredient portfolio from Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) to full Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which track water, land use, and other impacts, alongside emissions. The company developed the program with consultancy BrightWolves and says it gives customers third-party verified data.

Food Ingredients First speaks with Julie Van Gansewinkel, sustainability manager at Beneo, and Peter-Jan Roose, director of sustainability at BrightWolves, about what the switch reveals and how it changes the claims manufacturers can make.

Beyond the final figure 

Van Gansewinkel says customers have their own sustainability targets, and the impacts of the ingredients they buy count toward their Scope 3 emissions. That makes reliable, primary data essential for tracking progress, she explains.

“In the past, we’ve arranged discussions with customers to explain the methodology behind PCF data and why figures are not always directly comparable,” she says. “Today, customers proactively approach us requesting details on the methodology.”

“This is shifting the customer conversation from simply asking ‘what is the footprint’ to ‘how robust is the data behind it, how was it calculated, and how can we use it responsibly?’”

Meanwhile, Roose notes that purchased ingredients make up a large share of a manufacturer’s footprint, so industry averages no longer suffice. He adds that the rules on environmental claims have tightened, and retailers are adding pressure through supplier scorecards.

“A footprint number alone is no longer enough,” says Roose. “Customers want transparency on methodology, data quality, and verification.”

“Carbon data is already becoming a commercial baseline, with water, land use, and biodiversity data expected to follow.”Beneo says verified LCA data helps customers make more informed decisions for formulations.

Hidden environmental trade-offs

According to Van Gansewinkel, most of Beneo’s portfolios were already covered by PCFs, which measure greenhouse gas emissions.

She details that the company’s LCAs follow a “cradle-to-gate” approach, which covers farming, transport, and processing up to the point an ingredient leaves the plant.

“That broader perspective is important because environmental impacts are interconnected,” Van Gansewinkel explains. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in one part of the value chain does not necessarily improve every other environmental indicator.”

Roose puts the problem in agricultural terms.

“A carbon footprint tells you one thing about an ingredient,” he says. “It does not tell you whether the lowest-carbon option also carries the highest water or land burden, and for agricultural ingredients it often does, because most of the impact happens in the field and much of it is not carbon.”

“Build a product footprint on carbon alone, and you inherit those trade-offs without seeing them. A full LCA shows them, and it shows the reverse: the one improvement that moves several indicators at once, which is the one to fund first.”

The portfolio-wide model

Roose, whose firm built the program with Beneo, argues that assessing the full portfolio with a single method is what makes results comparable between products and production sites.

“A pilot on two products makes a good study and a poor decision,” Roose reveals. “It says little about where to act across the range, and the next customer request is always for a product you have not assessed.”

“That is only affordable if the model is built once and reused, which is why the Beneo program runs as one connected model: shared cultivation, energy, and transport building blocks feed every product, so one updated input flows through the portfolio.”

Validating decisions

Van Gansewinkel stresses that the LCA results have sharpened decisions more than reversed them. The results backed Beneo’s existing approach to faba bean ingredient production in its plant protein range and showed where impacts concentrate in its fiber ingredients, including how they differ between production sites.

“The value of using LCA strategically is not just in identifying opportunities for improvement,” she remarks. “It can also validate existing choices, providing confidence that the right decisions are being made while highlighting where further gains can still be achieved.”

From reports to recipes

For customers, Van Gansewinkel points out, ingredient-level data lets R&D teams weigh the environmental effect of a formulation choice before a recipe is finalized.

“At that point, LCA data moves beyond reporting and becomes part of the broader decision-making process around ingredient selection,” she says. “This enables environmental performance to be taken into account from the very beginning, alongside cost, functionality, and nutrition.”BrightWolves says using only carbon figures can hide ingredient water and land trade-offs.

Roose agrees on the formulation, but says the decision that shifts most often is a commercial one.

“When sales can show a customer what an ingredient choice does to that customer’s own footprint, the LCA stops being a sustainability document and becomes part of how the ingredient is sold,” he states. “For a supplier, that is usually where the investment pays back first.”

EmpCo raises the bar

Van Gansewinkel cites the EU’s EmpCo as one reason customers now need to understand system boundaries and underlying data.

“Importantly, verified data does not necessarily mean that you can make more or broader claims,” she says. “In some cases, its value is precisely the opposite: it helps clarify what the evidence supports and where the boundaries are.”

“A specific, well-substantiated statement is much more meaningful than a broad environmental claim that the underlying data cannot support.”

She adds that the final claim rests with the company making it, but tighter requirements mean credible claims depend on reliable data from every stage of the value chain.

“Sustainability is not just about measuring impact,” she says. “It is about understanding it well enough to drive meaningful improvement.”

“That is exactly what our LCA program enables us to do. And when these insights are used externally, the same principle applies — only by understanding the data can we communicate its implications clearly, transparently, and with confidence,” Van Gansewinkel concludes.