This paper presents a holistic framework for assessing the sustainability of food quality schemes (FQS), including the role of both stakeholders within the value chain, and the territorial dimension. The paper discusses the use of dimensional indicators and proposes synthetic indexes to provide an overall picture of the evolution of sustainability. In particular, the evolution of sustainability in the Parmigiano Reggiano Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) production system is evaluated over the period 2000-2018 and found to be increasing at the farm level and only slightly decreasing at the processing level. This overall result accounts for the dynamics of three dimensional indexes capturing the economic, environmental and social components of the overall level of sustainability. While economic sustainability almost doubles at the farm level, it only slightly increases at the processing level. Environmental sustainability is high and on the rise at both stages of the supply chain. Social sustainability is low and declining over time. The change in the value of the sustainability indexes is related to the introduction of some 40 innovations over roughly 20 years.