According to recent research, over a third of all global food is wasted. Australia generates around 5.3 million tonnes of food waste annually, of which some 2.2 million tonnes (42 percent) come from the commercial and industrial sectors. While there are no reliable figures for total food waste in New Zealand, estimates suggest that manufacturing wastes some 40,800 tonnes of food annually in Auckland alone.
While not all of this material is edible, in terms of efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, prevention of this waste is preferable to other methods such as food redistribution or use as animal feed, recycling, energy generation or disposal via anaerobic digestion, composting, incineration or landfill.
Waste food also has significant financial costs for businesses. The raw material has a cost, and additional costs are associated with the redistribution or disposal of waste food products. Some key areas to consider include improved packaging, forecasting, waste measurement and planning, reviewing quality control, staff involvement and awareness, improved disposal of unavoidable waste, and the utilisation of technology during production. Matt Hale, international sales and marketing director of HRS Heat Exchangers, went on to explain how each of these examples could be used by businesses to reduce food waste.
Matt Hale
Good quality packaging improves food's shelf life and reduces waste in the distribution chain and households. However, there is increasingly a balance between reducing the use of plastics and non-recyclable materials while increasing product shelf life (wrapping cucumbers in plastic is a classic example). Choosing the proper packaging during the manufacturing process can improve shelf life and reduce handling, improving efficiencies and reducing waste.
Inaccurate forecasting can mean businesses waste raw materials and ingredients. Hale warned that businesses should not assume they need to produce a certain number of products unless there is clear evidence for such demand (such as agreed orders or demand modelling). Ordering enough ingredients to produce a specific volume of product but producing less is one of the most significant sources of waste in food businesses, mainly when using fresh or perishable ingredients. Better and more accurate forecasting models allow businesses to guess less and maximise the use of ingredients.
Businesses need to measure waste to discern if they are reducing waste or adequately calculating its cost. Feeding this data into company-wide systems to be analysed centrally helps identify areas of inefficiency and waste, allowing manufacturers to streamline processes and reduce waste.
Quality control is vital to maintain standards and food safety. However, there is a need to avoid overzealous standards, which may result in perfectly usable ingredients being discarded—likewise, under- or overcooking food or having unnecessary trimmings or off-cuts results in unnecessary waste.
As with other areas, staff awareness, education, and involvement play a huge role in minimising waste. Employees should be invested and committed to reducing waste and building it into the company culture. As well as educating staff about the impacts of waste, they should be encouraged to participate in an entire dialogue as employees often have valuable insights.
Even with the best will in the world, some 'waste' is likely to be generated. This should be dealt with to maximise its usefulness or value. According to the food waste hierarchy, in order of preference, these disposal options are redistribution to people, use for animal feed, anaerobic digestion, composting, incineration with energy recovery incineration, landfill, or disposal via sewerage systems.
It may also be possible to utilise certain products in novel ways. For example, vegetable oils and animal by-products (ABPs) can be converted into biodiesel where facilities allow.
New technology or equipment may help increase utilisation by recovering more usable protein from meat carcases. Another option is to optimise existing production processes, particularly regarding production changes or cleaning-in-place (CIP).
For example, the HRS R Series of heat exchangers uses a scraper bar within the inner tube to enhance product flow, prevent fouling and minimise pressure drop. It has the unique feature that, when configured correctly, the unit can be run in reverse, effectively emptying the product's heat exchanger tube(s) without damaging it or changing its characteristics to recover and utilise it.
Due to the amount of product saved, and the fact that installing additional product recovery systems is often unnecessary, the R Series heat exchanger can be a more economical option than alternative systems, which have lower capital costs.
