Goodman Fielder has set itself the goal of halving its food waste by 2030. Kim Berry talks to head of sustainability Mick Anderson about what the company is doing to achieve that. This article first appeared in the June 2021 issue of Food & Drink Business.
Q. What was the catalyst for Goodman Fielder to set its food waste goals?
Every year, about 30 per cent of the world’s food is wasted. If that waste was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, behind only China and the US.
The arable land used to grow food that is never eaten is estimated to be about the size to China. So if we want to halt deforestation, protect biodiversity, tackle climate change and address food insecurity and social inequality, food waste is a pretty good place to start.
For Goodman Fielder, it became impossible not to be passionate about stepping up to be an industry leader in tackling the issue. It also helps deliver so many of our sustainability priorities.
Q. What steps are Goodman Fielder taking in-house?
Our goal is to halve food waste by 2030, from the farm right through to the home and this obviously includes a focus on our own operations.
There is no single answer to tackling food waste. People, processes, equipment, products, and data are all elements that make up a successful food waste program.
The bakers and operators on the factory floor in our bakeries know which processes are creating food waste and often have great insights into the causes and potential solutions. Combining these insights with a data driven focus we can target investments and training to drive change.
Each of our manufacturing sites has a daily operations briefing or “pulse” where waste levels for the previous 24 hours are discussed, and improvement actions reviewed.
This daily check-in allows issues to be identified and rectified quickly and the impact of larger initiatives can be measured quickly.
All our major manufacturing sites in Australia and New Zealand have alternate solutions for any food waste that is generated (e.g. donations, stockfeed partnerships).
Q. Have there been any major successes so far?
Our Burleigh Heads bakery is a great example of successfully implementing food waste strategies. The site achieved a 90 per cent reduction in production waste over the last 18 months.
The team did this through a combination of behaviour/process change and large capital investments.
A key project focused on our bread tins. As tins get old, lose their coating, and become misshapen, bread can get stuck in the tin and is unable to be extracted at our de-panners. These loaves then have to be pulled out by hand and, due to damage, can’t be returned to the production line.
This was the single biggest cause of food waste at the site and investing in new tins became a vital investment in tackling food waste.
Bringing the whole team along for the ride was also an important success factor for the initiative, with a real focus on how to handle the new tins to maximise the benefit and prevent damage.
Another success story is at our crumbing plant in Victoria. It can convert unsold bread into premium breadcrumbs for sale to food service and industrial customers. This upcycling initiative can divert up to 2000 tonnes of bread waste each year from stockfeed to human consumption.
Q. What about consumers?
We know that some of our most popular products are among the most wasted within the home, so it is important our actions stretch to our consumers and support food waste prevention strategies in the home.
We now produce mini loaves under the Wonder White and Helga’s brands – for us, from a sustainability perspective, it is a fabulous way for consumers to still enjoy our products without having to throw bread away.
It was born from a consumer need for people living on their own and smaller households, so they can buy bread, it costs less and there is less waste.
This initiative included a significant capital investment in new packing lines. We are on track to sell three million loaves this year.
We have also launched a Pampas Pastry Re-Pie-Cling campaign. Its aim is to reducing food waste in the home by providing consumers with recipes and inspiration to use today’s leftovers as tomorrow’s filling. We distributed the Re-Pie-Cling Cookbook to more than 280,000 Aussie households last year and ran a national campaign to find the best re-pie-cling examples from around the country.
Engagement from the Pampas family has been great with some innovative (and delicious) inspiration. Helping our consumers use our products as a vehicle for tackling food waste, and the broader sustainability impact this can have, is something we are really excited about.
Goodman Fielder also has a role to play when it comes to food insecurity and relieving hunger. We are committed to making sure unsold products that are still fit for human consumption get donated. Through our national partnerships with Foodbank, we donate the equivalent of 1.2 million meals per year. As part of our new sustainability strategy, we aim to amplify our food donation initiatives, using a social impact framework to ensure food can be a force for good.
Q. How are you working with your supply chain?
Collaboration is the only way to deliver on our sustainability ambitions. We have partnered with our flour suppliers to take responsibility for all products made from the wheat (not just the flour). We can then use our business to ensure the by-products are utilised and as a minimum diverted to stockfeed.
We have also implemented a bread waste collection service, collecting in-store bakery and private label products from major retailers and processing them through our existing stockfeed arrangements.
This initiative is still being rolled out and is currently diverting approximately 240 tonnes of bread waste from landfill per month.
Q. What is your advice to other companies when it comes to food waste initiatives?
We are proud of what we have achieved and know there is lots more to do. One key learning from our experience so far is to take action and, if possible, make the obvious investments. This builds momentum and, when backed by data and monitoring, can drive ongoing success.
Core to our approach to sustainability is collaboration and some of our biggest wins on food waste have come from working with partners on shared challenges.
