From food factory to farm

Paul Featherstone, group director of SugaRich, looks at how former foodstuffs can be recovered into valuable resources.

When food is manufactured, there are a number of byproducts that are created and a proportion of the finished product can’t be placed on the market for consumption by human beings. This can be for a variety of reasons such as packaging defects or for technological reasons such as the wrong size or weight biscuits, trial runs or over ordering and out of date stock.

With so many other issues to manage within a busy food production site or supermarket chain, getting this surplus food disposed of as waste may seem like the simplest choice, even if this results in a cost being levied to the business and the waste potentially ending up in landfill.

A third of the entire world’s food is wasted and we all have a part to play in solving this problem. Former foodstuffs should be regarded as a resource, not a waste product. Diversion of food waste from disposal is becoming an increasing priority for government which is promoting recycling and the development of markets for valuable products.

Many of these former foodstuffs, including bread, biscuits, breakfast cereal, crisps and confectionery have a very high nutritional value – being a source of high quality fats, sugar and carbohydrates. After checking their feed safety and traceability and therefore suitability, SugaRich convert these into high quality ingredients for use in animal feed, avoiding waste from food that is outside of specification for human consumption.

Business and environmental benefits

This ‘closed-loop’ recycling, by which the waste from one product is used in the making of another product, brings measurable economic gains to businesses and long term benefits to the environment. Wasting former foodstuffs adds pressure on scarce land and resources. Food sent to landfill biodegrades, releasing methane into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on the environment, whilst incineration may cause harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The recovery of former foodstuffs and by-products for use as animal feed is a sustainable and economically beneficial solution for all major food businesses, encouraging zero waste to landfill and cost savings.

Preventing food waste makes good business sense. Revenue is generated not just by the money saved from sending waste to landfill and the associated charges involved, but from the waste itself. Using materials more efficiently, and managing waste better enables manufacturers to reduce costs, make money and decrease the environmental impact.

From our work with the UK’s largest food manufacturers, supermarkets and distributors, over 350,000 tonnes of surplus food per annum has been diverted from traditional waste disposal routes.

Many businesses are unaware of how significantly waste impacts on their bottom line. We replace the term ‘waste” with ‘resource,’ working with organisations, to help them ensure compliance in respect of the waste hierarchy, encouraging them to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Legislative compliance

Anything designated for feed use will ultimately be re-entering the food chain, so strict adherence to regulations are essential. When former foodstuffs are used to produce animal feed, certain legal obligations are placed of the factory of production. By law the factory is deemed a “Feed Business Operator” and has to be compliant under the Feed Hygiene Regulations EU 183/2005.

Hygiene standards are very important in the disposal of the surplus foodstuffs. Products no longer intended for human consumption, which may be destined for farm animal feeding, must be kept separate during transport, storage and dispatch to and from a supermarket returns depot or food manufacturing plant.

Our services are fully accredited to the Feed Materials Assurance Scheme (FEMAS) standard ensuring that all feeds are fully traceable from source to supply giving both quality controlled service and products.

The logistics

Each food and drink production site has different challenges. Our expert team audit the whole location and production processes and design and build tailor made surplus food handling installations to suit each individual food factory site.

Critical control points for food safety are implemented through our Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems which prevent the mixture of any non-food waste and ensure feed materials are free from any chemical or microbiological impurities.

Where inedible products or products prohibited from inclusion in feed (such as meat or fish) are stored or handled on the same site as surplus foods intended for feed use, there must be physical separation between these products and the feed products. This will ideally be full physical segregation of buildings and equipment. Detailed records of disposal of non-feed products must be maintained.

To make the process of segregating the waste as straightforward as possible, the total waste management side of our business, SugaRecycle, can help with streaming and managing of all waste products from plastics and oils through to card, packaging, metal and more.

Sealed containers with surplus food are collected and returned using specialist vehicles. All containers are clearly marked to avoid any chance of confusion between surplus food materials and waste.

The surplus food is then transported to our purpose built reprocessing centres where computer generated formulations manufacture a feed material to exact customer specifications. SugaRich produce a range of bakery, biscuit and confectionery meals to suit feed compounders, blenders and home mixers.

Practical steps to reduce waste

Many food production sites and supermarket chains are taking practical steps to reduce waste. For example, in its ‘Environmental Report’ for 2011 [i], United Biscuits reports on its steps to achieve zero waste to landfill. All group manufacturing sites now send zero waste to landfill which has “involved working with suppliers to ensure that ingredients and other materials were provided in formats that could be recycled or reused and that excessive packaging was avoided.”

During 2011, Sainsbury’s launched its ‘20 by 20 Sustainability Plan’ [ii] which outlines 20 ambitious goals that Sainsbury’s plans to meet by 2020 to reduce environmental impact and set the standard for the UK and worldwide retail industry to follow. This includes putting all waste to positive use, making sure that none of it is sent to landfill.

Quality feed within the food chain

Remember to take the advice of a nutritionist on feed mixtures and ensure they are used as part of a balanced diet paying particular attention to an adequate supply of long fibre. Animal feed plays an important part in the food chain and has implications for the composition and quality of the livestock products (milk, meat and eggs) that people consume. Our high quality feed is delivered direct to the compounder, blender or farm. This high energy livestock feed helps to improve livestock productivity.

The Food Standards Agency is responsible for drawing up the rules on the composition and marketing of animal feed. The Agency’s main aims in this area are to help protect consumer and animal health. Another aim is to ensure that those buying the feed are provided with sufficient information to allow them to make informed choices.

Best for business

In summary, by recognising that former foodstuff is a resource and not a waste product, food businesses can reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill every year, save costs, turn waste into revenue and lessen environmental damage.

www.sugarich.co.uk