Operationalizing sustainability measurement in the agrifood sector: Insights from the foodmeter tool

The food sector plays a crucial role in environmental, social, and economic sustainability, yet Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often face challenges in adopting existing assessment tools due to their complexity and data requirements. To address this, Foodmeter was developed as a web-based decision support system that allows SMEs to perform accessible, actionable, and multi-dimensional sustainability assessments. The tool integrates heterogeneous variables following multi-criterial decision analysis principles, providing interpretable results to guide improvement actions and support continuous sustainability tracking. It was tested with a panel of Italian strawberry SMEs, leading to the development of Foodmeter 2.0, which includes improved Good Agricultural Practices indicators and report usability. Its effectiveness and user acceptance were evaluated through feedback and statistical analysis. Testing showed that Foodmeter 2.0 assigned lower overall scores (a decrease of 10 percentage points, from 67 % to 57 %) due to stricter scoring criteria, reflecting the completeness of sustainability efforts rather than isolated actions. Feedback based on the Technology Acceptance Model indicated a 13 % increase in Behavioral Intention to use the tool, a positive trend in Perceived Usefulness, and stable Perceived Ease of Use. Overall, Foodmeter 2.0 offers more actionable insights, stronger diagnostic value, and high usability for small-scale agricultural enterprises. Foodmeter demonstrates its potential not only as a reporting tool but also as a decision-support system that, by translating complex sustainability data into actionable insights, empowers farmers to take ownership of their sustainability journey, to identify priorities, and to enhance both environmental and socio-economic performance, contributing to more sustainable agri-food systems. • A user-friendly method to address sustainability in agrifood SMEs was developed. • The tool, based on MCDA, evolved from Excel to a web platform (Foodmeter 1.0). • A new version (Foodmeter 2.0) was developed and validated through user testing. • Preference for version 2.0 is confirmed by higher perceived utility in user testing. • The tool guides SMEs with tailored good practices to improve sustainability.