Assessment of sustainability will become more relevant for the food industry in the years to come. Analysis based on exergy, including the use of exergetic indicators and Grassmann diagrams, is a useful tool for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the efficiency of industrial food chains. In this paper, we review the methodology of exergy analysis and the exergetic indicators that are most appropriate for use in the food industry. The challenges of applying exergy analysis in industrial food chains and the specific features of food processes are also discussed.