Year: 2026
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: True Cost Accounting (TCA) aims to quantify the social, environmental, and health costs of food that markets do not reflect, and has emerged as a tool to support food systems transformation. Despite its rapid uptake, how TCA is conceptualised and operationalised in the scientific literature, and whether the two are coherent, has not been systematically examined. We review 52 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and August 2025 following PRISMA guidelines, asking how TCA is conceptualised and operationalised in relation to food systems transformation. Conceptually, we identify four framings, each carrying an implicit theory of change: Information assumes that greater transparency improves decisions; Prices, that integrating hidden costs into market prices redirects production and consumption; Distribution, that reallocating the burdens and benefits of food systems is what unlocks change; Values, that making hidden costs visible broadens what is considered worthy and thereby shifts the underlying value system. The Information framing dominates the corpus, but rests on the most conservative assumption that better evidence suffices to shift decisions. Operationally, the literature is methodologically stronger for environmental and health impacts than for social ones and combines in some cases distinct monetisation logics within single studies. We show that methodological choices and theories of change are interdependent, since the methods used to quantify “hidden costs” embed assumptions about what TCA is for. Building on this, we propose a research agenda that extends four established ground rules for valuation practice and adds a fifth: declaring the problem framing and theory of change, so that methods, evidence, and transformative purpose align.
Source: Cleaner Food Systems
Author: Laurence Jeangros
Institution: University of Lausanne
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7201831719