Sustainability Projects Target Food and Energy Waste

The world faces increasing levels of food security, and there’s much that this industry can do to combat that—and save more of its own resources.

Each year, billions of pounds of good food are wasted. Whether it’s crops that never get harvested or food left to expire at home or in restaurants, there are any number of reasons why food doesn’t make it into the mouths of people facing food insecurity. Everybody up and down the supply chain has a role to play in reducing food waste.

We recently saw a success out of Bob’s Red Mill, which won a Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award (SEMA) this year from ProFood World for zeroing in specifically on a food waste problem in its production process. The company made a relatively simple adjustment to the conveyor on one of its grain lines—reducing grain spillover and thereby reducing its wasted food per pound on that line by more than 70%.

From a food manufacturer’s perspective, it’s not always in the production process where food waste occurs. It could be looked at from several angles—creating formulations or using technologies (high-pressure processing or aseptic processing, say) that enable longer shelf life for perishable goods, optimizing shipping routes from supplier to processor to retail, rethinking the packaging that might keep that food fresher for longer, and improving labeling practices, to name a few.

Of course, reducing food waste is just one part of the larger discussion of sustainability. Having recently completed the judging of our SEMAs, sustainability is fairly top of mind around here. But then, sustainability has become top of mind for a lot of food and beverage producers these days.

They’re being held more and more accountable by consumers to be transparent, ambitious, and successful when it comes to their environmental agendas. But they also know that many of those sustainability projects—reducing energy, water, materials, food waste, and more—are going to pay for themselves in relatively short amount of time.

Read “Collaboration Pushes Sustainability Forward” on page 30 to learn more about our latest SEMA-winning programs and projects from Conagra Brands, Hormel Foods, Bob’s Red Mill, and Smithfield Packaged Meats.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

CHRISTINE BENSE

CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER

Turkey Hill

GREG FLICKINGER

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Nobell Foods

JOHN HILKER

SENIOR VP, OPERATIONS

Kite Hill

VINCE NASTI

VP, OPERATIONS

Nation Pizza & Foods

JIM PRUNESTI

VP, ENGINEERING

Conagra Brands

LISA RATHBURN

VP, ENGINEERING

T. Marzetti

MARK SHAYE

VP, ENGINEERING

Ken’s Foods

TONY VANDENOEVER

CONSULTANT, FOOD MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

Waterfall Ventures

DIANE WOLF

FORMER VP, ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS

Kraft Foods

BROOKE WYNN

SENIOR DIRECTOR, SUSTAINABILITY

Smithfield Foods

RIBBON/PADDLE/PLOW BLENDERS HANDLE POWDERS TO PASTES

Agitators forced through stationary materials impart shear needed to reduce agglomerates and blend pastes and slurries. Basic industrial units to state-of-the-art sanitary designs with heating/cooling jackets, liquid spray additions, and high-speed choppers/intensifiers. Capacities from 1 to 1,150 cu ft (.03 to 32 m3).

VEE-CONE BLENDERS SANITIZE ULTRA-FAST, THOROUGHLY

Smooth internal surfaces free of baffles, shafts and bearings allow unobstructed material flow, plus complete discharge through a gate valve for rapid cleaning or sanitizing of the easy-access interior. Uniform blends are typically achieved in as little as 15 minutes with equal efficiency at fill volumes from 100% to 25% of capacity. Ideal for dry and granular materials.