From Data to Due Diligence: Tackling the Most Severe Risks in F&B Supply Chains

Food and beverage supply chains are complex and high-risk, spanning multi-tier sourcing, labor-intensive production, and global operations.

Understanding the prevalence and severity of these risks is critical for strengthening human rights due diligence (HRDD). Many organizations now look beyond individual site audits to benchmark their risk profile against sector trends, identifying where vulnerabilities are concentrated and where remediation efforts should focus.

In this session, Sedex experts unpack the latest data insights to help companies strengthen their human rights due diligence (HRDD), along with Phillip Clayton, founder and director of Align, who offers practical advice on how Lived Experience can support companies’ responses to risk information and strengthen their due diligence through Align’s Lived Experience Approach Framework

Martine Hornseth, Sustainability Intelligence Strategist at Sedex, provides an in-depth view of risk patterns across the food and beverage sector, highlighting differences between agriculture and manufacturing. She explores which risks are most prevalent and which pose the greatest severity, showing how understanding these trends can inform risk prioritization. With a focused look at forced labour risk with Tom Sewell, Social Sustainability Manager, drawing on Sedex’s Forced Labour Indicators (FLI) report.