Food Loss Reduction

Food loss occurs before the food reaches the consumer due to issues in the production, storage, processing, and distribution phases. In contrast, food “waste” refers to food fit for consumption but consciously discarded at the retail or consumption phases.

Food loss and waste have significant social and environmental impacts:

An estimated 57 million tonnes of food and beverages are wasted annually in Europe (about a third of the available food), while 22 million people in Europe suffer from acute food insecurity.
Food production significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and consumes resources like water, land, and energy, which are wasted when food does not reach the final consumers.

While most food waste occurs at the retail and consumption stages, industries can take steps to reduce their own losses. This not only helps achieve a more favorable environmental footprint but also lowers production costs simultaneously.

Our goal is to improve your ROI and sustainability indicators through a structured approach to food loss reduction at the manufacturing level.

Where are the Main Challenges for Food Loss Reduction at the Processing Stage?

Typical causes of losses can include:

Recurring product defects affecting some batches for unknown reasons.
Operational factors such as the frequency of maintenance and cleanings, shift lengths, and batch management, which can contribute to small losses on production lines every day, eventually accumulating into significant waste.
Storage conditions of raw materials and finished products that can lead to uncontrolled spoilage and losses.
Circulation of products and people in the plant, causing cross-contaminations.
Short shelf-life of products, making it challenging to release them on the market promptly.
Improper practices by employees working on the line. High turnover in the industry and difficulties in hiring make it challenging to train workers in good manufacturing practices and HACCP, which can lead to risks.

A more effective management of food loss in the plant goes hand-in-hand with better quality management and operational efficiency.

For unavoidable food losses, proper disposal methods are crucial for valorization and to prevent pollution. This includes composting organic waste, being cautious about products that may contain antibiotic residues, and avoiding the mixing of cleaning products with food waste.

Our Step-by-Step Approach to Food Loss Reduction

Starting a journey to reduce food loss can be daunting, given the many aspects involved, such as quality management, operational efficiency, plant layout, and waste disposal management.

We have taken the time to develop an easy-to-follow process that will guide you through the journey and provide technical support every step of the way.

Step 1: Take our Food Waste Reduction Questionnaire!

This tool will assist you in identifying your most significant gaps. Our teams, upon receiving your answers, will evaluate areas with the greatest improvement opportunities, allowing us to tailor the most suitable approach for you. This questionnaire is completely free!

Start your Food Waste Reduction journey here

Step 2: On-Site Assessment

After completing the questionnaire, our auditing team will contact you to schedule an on-site visit. This visit is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the pain points and conducting a comprehensive assessment. It allows our experts to propose next steps and appropriate solutions.

One crucial aspect of the assessment is to calculate the volume of food wasted in your plant, which serves as a baseline of reference. During this assessment, we aim to map the hotspots by addressing key questions:

What is the volume of food loss during processing in routine mode?
How are losses distributed among each step of the process?
Where are the primary hotspots of losses in the plant?
What recent events have resulted in the disposal of batches?

Achieving an accurate calculation and assessment of where food is lost is a challenging task but represents half the work!

Step 3: Specific Offer

Additional studies may be proposed to investigate the root causes of certain food losses, especially in cases of repeated events or recurring product defects.

A variety of reduction projects can then be undertaken, tailored to address your specific challenges. These projects may include:

Improving plant layout to enhance waste evacuation, minimize cross-contamination, and reduce spoilage.
Enhancing environmental monitoring practices.
Implementing quality controls with suppliers if raw materials are consistently spoiled.
Exploring valuable pathways for waste valorization.
Extending shelf life.
Providing team training on manufacturing and waste disposal best practices.

Step 4: Supporting Services

Training
Shelf-life studies based on the matrix
Review practices

We Leverage our Long Experience Working with Food Industries

At Mérieux NutriSciences, supporting the food sector in building more sustainable food systems is part of our DNA. For decades, Mérieux NutriSciences has brought its expertise in Food science to work toward safer and more qualitative food.

Today, we leverage our experience and knowledge to help food companies make their business more sustainable at every stage of their value chain.

Our auditing experience helps us be efficient in analyzing your food loss challenges and deploying corrective action plans. Our senior consultants have more than 15 years of experience working with food industries and can support the investigations of complex recurring events that lead to food loss, improving your quality management and ROI at the same time.

Start your journey to reduce food loss:

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