Data related to imported food production standards: Method

To identify available sources of data and metrics for assessing imported food production standards, a methodical review of published and grey literature was undertaken. The review broadly followed an REA analytical structure but with a flexible approach that considered both academic and grey literature to ensure a wide range of relevant literature was captured. Grey literature is a complex and extensive source of information, produced from various entities that sit outside the white peer reviewed academic literature found in journal papers.  Maintaining a flexible approach provided wider exploration opportunities. This ensured that there was a suitable range of information captured on the availability of data and metrics related to food production standards.

Defining a framework

Initially, a framework was defined to undertake the evaluation. The framework functioned to collate a body of literature which considered animal welfare, environmental sustainability, or nutritional composition standards across imported food production.

Defining search terms

The review aimed to minimise the risk of omitting relevant information sources from the search. Search terms were defined (Appendix 1) for each imported food production theme; animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition as initial guidance to structure the search. The search terms were produced based on a pre-agreed set of key metrics considered relevant for measuring animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition.  Search terms were defined through workshops with FSA and using them in the search process above literature was assessed on whether it had relevant information on data and metrics used for imported food standards. Relevant literature sources identified were populated into the framework and evaluated to assess their relevance and robustness. 

Completing the literature search

The literature search was conducted to assess the presence or absence of reliable data sources, and potential metrics across the three themes that allow an assessment of food import standards. In the original searches approximately 50 sources were identified for each theme. These were then filtered down to the 30 most relevant for each theme (Appendix 2). The literature search was tiered (summarised in Figure 2) to initially evaluate any identified targeted websites of interest, then expanded to a general search engine search (Google search) which funnelled down to government and non-government organisation website searches.

Figure 2 Summary of tiered search process undertaken.

Source ADAS. 

Screened literature sources were allocated a scoring based on a traffic light system (Red/Amber/Green) to indicate the rigour and relevance to the project aim. Literature which scored as green was progressed to the next evaluation stage, amber literature was reassessed by second reviewer to determine if it should be green or red, and red literature was then excluded from any further analysis. 

Evaluation of literature

Literature sources selected were evaluated using the framework discussed in section 2.1, to determine the impact on animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition parameters of imported food production standards. The evaluation process provided insight into relevance and robustness of literature for conversion into measurable metrics. The findings for animal welfare, environmental sustainability and nutritional composition are summarised in chapter 3. 

Identification of metrics

Relevant literature was evaluated to understand how it compares to UK data metrics (where applicable, present, and appropriate). This provided a benchmark against which UK metrics on food production standards can be assessed to see where they align or differ to those found in the literature.