Agri-food companies across Europe are investing in sustainability—better sourcing, lower emissions, fairer production. Yet much of this effort remains invisible to consumers, and often goes unrecognised or unrewarded.

Why?

Research from the CUES project points to a key issue: not a lack of effort, but a coordination problem across the entire food value chain.

Where transparency breaks down

The problem doesn’t lie in one place—it unfolds across the system.

• Inside the value chain, sustainability data is often incomplete or not shared. Even when actors want to be transparent, they may lack the tools or routines to document and exchange information reliably.
• Between the chain and consumers, complex evidence doesn’t translate easily into clear, trustworthy messages. Gaps in standards and verification leave room for confusion.
• At consumer level, the result is familiar: too much information, too little clarity. Greenwashing erodes trust, and price continues to drive decisions—even when better options exist.

From insight to action

CUES is turning these insights into practice through intervention cases for food value chain change, working with real actors in real contexts to test how transparency can actually work.

The goal is simple: make sustainability information flow better, make it clearer, and make it trustworthy.

What makes transparency work

The research is clear—technology alone won’t fix the problem. Transparency works when the whole system aligns.

That means:

• a shared commitment on what to communicate
• common standards so information can flow
• trusted intermediaries to translate complexity
• and incentives that make the effort worthwhile

Transparency isn’t just about providing more information—it’s about making it work across the system.

By tackling this as a collective challenge and testing solutions in practice, CUES is helping build a food system where sustainability efforts are not only made—but actually seen, understood, and trusted.