FOOD WASTE
The REAL Turmat and REAL Field Meal brands are packaged on our own packing line. Skilled operators and good internal collaboration have led to significant improvements related to the utilisation of previously rejected bags. We have reduced the number of bags that are rejected by 34% over the past year.
Quality assurance with benefits
Parts of our food waste have been linked to processes concerning quality assurance when preparing the bags for distribution and sale. Bags sorted as rejects previously went straight into a container and were sorted as packaged food waste. Here, we saw great potential for improvement, and a process we wanted to make improvements to! The project called ‘From Reject to Plus Goods’ was implemented throughout large parts of the enterprise.
Most importantly, we are learning more and more about how best to make use of those goods that, for quality reasons, are unable to reach the open market. Previously rejected goods with aesthetic defects (B-goods) have now become plus goods:
- B-goods are used at trade fairs at home and abroad as taste samples.
- B-goods are used by our ambassadors at home and abroad.
- We give B-goods to charitable causes.
- Lunches and dinners are always free in our canteens.
We haven’t quite finished the project yet, but the data we have gathered along the way provides us with good insight into the way forward. Safe food is an absolute requirement for us, so there is still a lot of work to do before we can say that we have zero waste regarding pre-packaged meal bags.
The picture shows sorting examples.
– Pulled pork is the wrong weight, B-goods
– Pasta Bolognese is categorised as B-goods because it cannot be hung in a store
– Bags without labels are B-goods
– This reindeer stew is an example of D-goods. It is not vacuumed packed properly or the bag has a hole in it.
