Food Ethics as a Framework for Sustainable Food Transitions: A Systematic Review

Amid growing concern about sustainability transitions, food ethics has gained visibility yet remains conceptually fragmented and frequently overshadowed by technical and economic priorities. This review examines the role of food ethics in sustainable food system transitions, focusing on how ethical reasoning is conceptualized and discussed in empirical research. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we identified seven manuscripts that explicitly engage with food ethics in sustainability transitions. We included original studies and excluded theoretical papers and reviews. The manuscripts were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and ProQuest. Risk of bias was assessed using MMAT, and results were synthesized thematically and presented in tables and narrative form. The analysis revealed three interconnected ethical dimensions. First, systemic ethics highlights how values and principles are embedded in institutional frameworks and actor relationships. Second, food justice emphasizes inclusive participation, recognition, and political agency. Third, food values and identity illuminate how cultural imaginaries and lived experiences shape ethical engagement. Yet across all studies, ethics remains implicit, symbolic, or secondary. We argue that food ethics should be repositioned as fundamental to sustainability transitions—not as an auxiliary concern but as a core orientation. Rooted in inclusive participation, power redistribution, and critical engagement with existing frameworks, food ethics sustains the conditions for systemic change and opens new possibilities and pathways toward just and sustainable food systems.