The provision of a secure, continuous energy supply is becoming an issue for all sectors of society and the food processing industry as a major energy user must address these issues. This paper identifies anaerobic digestion as an opportunity to go some way to achieving energy security in a sustainable manner. However, a number of energy management and waste reduction concepts must also be brought into play if the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability are to be balanced. The reporting of such activity will help to promote the green credentials of the industry. Cleaner production, supply chain and life cycle assessment approaches all have a part to play as tools supporting a new vision for integrated energy and waste management. Our reliance on high-energy processing, such as canning and freezing/chill storage, might also need re-assessment together with processing based on hurdle technology. Finally, the concepts of energy and power management for a distributed energy generation system must be brought into the food processing industry. (C) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.