The Environmental, Economic and Social Impact of Industry 4.0 in the Food Sector: a Descriptive Literature Review

Industries today are facing new technological changes. Thanks to the introduction of new tools and technologies of the so-called Industry 4.0, industrial processes are becoming more automated and interconnected. In the meantime, laws and international meetings, such as the 2030 Agenda, ask companies to be more sustainable. Considering these premises, this study aims to analyse the available studies that focus on a possible link between these two topics, investigating the sustainability of 4.0 innovations in the food sector. The work carried out a literature analysis on the Scopus scientific database, looking for papers published in English all over the world. Results highlight that among the three pillars of sustainability, the environmental is the most studied one. More efforts should be done, instead, from an economic and social point of view. However, even if the available studies are still few, they are increasing over the last few years, also spreading geographically, underling the importance of these topics in the near future.