A review of the food industry water footprint and the water supply chain management is presented. Water demand management, distributed water supply, water supply security, water supply buffering, and the technologies and techniques for water recycling are discussed. Water is widely used in the food industries as an important raw material and as a utility e.g. steam, cooling water, and mass transfer agent. Strict requirements for product quality and the associated hygiene issues in manufacturing contribute to large amounts of high-quality water being consumed by the food processing industry. The adoption of water minimisation techniques can reduce the fresh water demand of waterusing processes considerably and, consequently, reduce the amount of effluent generated. Thus, both the costs incurred in the acquisition of fresh water and the costs involved in the treatment of effluent streams are reduced.