The PURE-FOOD project adopts a holistic and inclusive methodology that recognizes societal engagement and empowerment as critical components for achieving systemic change in the F&D sectors. The approach is based on the premise that scientific and technological developments, though a key part of the solution, are insufficient alone to address pollution and sustainability challenges without parallel efforts to raise awareness, foster behavioral shifts, and ensure the effective dissemination, communication and uptake of knowledge and solutions. This methodology is designed to contribute directly to the project’s objectives by ensuring that citizens, consumers, industry actors and public authorities are not only informed but also actively involved in shaping, testing, and adopting solutions developed throughout the project. The methodology is put into practice through the different CS that target F&D industry selected representative sub-sectors. The project is structured in three closely linked pillars, each one addressing complementary dimensions of the challenges necessary to reach the overall objective of the project:

Pillar 1 — Pollution assessment and stakeholder engagement (diagnostic science & baseline): Mapping of pollutants (traditional pollutants (BOD, COD, Total suspended solids (TSS), N, P) and pollutants not covered by BAT conclusions: EOF, MPs, emerging and less-known pollutants and microbial contaminants) from food and drink sector facilities, including both direct discharges and contributions to municipal wastewater, if applicable.

Pillar 2 — Mitigation solutions (source reduction strategies, technology development & optimization):  This pillar comprises selection, co-design, integration and demonstration of tailored treatment and source-reduction interventions to lower post-treatment emissions with focus on priority emerging/less-known pollutants across a diversity of sub-sectors and facility sizes that constitute the case studies.

Pillar 3 — Case studies sustainability & replication (validation, impact assessment and scaling): This pillar aims to assess real-world sustainability (including environmental, economic, social aspects), provide information supporting future BAT guidance, and prepare replication and exploitation pathways across sectors and geographies for broad uptake of the identified approaches. A participatory and multi-actor engagement strategy that integrates co-creation processes, behavioral science, and strategic communication is central to the methodology adopted in PURE-FOOD.