Combating food waste during the manufacturing and processing stages

Phil Black - PII Editor 21/04/2023

340 4 minutes read

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According to statistics provided by the UN, an estimated 17% of the total production of food is wasted, especially in households. Still, food service and retail are also prone to food losses. On the other hand, 14% of food is lost during harvesting and retailing. At least since 2014, the consequences of mass loss of edible food led to a rising number of people affected by hunger. The World Food Programme revealed that around 828 million people are on the verge of starving as they lack the resources to provide for their next meal.

Food waste happens everywhere, and multiple factors trigger it. In the past years, the epidemic and conflicts worldwide accelerated the dynamic of food waste, which is something that needs to be solved. Although food is mainly lost in households, a product's manufacturing and processing stages are not flawless, and they could improve more. Here’s how.

Improved packaging

Food packaging has become a controversial matter regarding food chains. While it has been stated that plastic packaging is harmful to the environment and new ways to replace it are searched for, packaging can also influence the food’s quality over time.

Usually, packaging has an essential role in protecting and preserving food during the supply chain, delivery and buying process. Therefore, packaging acts as a shield for food against perishing too soon, so it mustn’t be reduced. In some cases, it might happen that reducing packaging will outweigh the benefits as food will get wasted much faster.

A better solution regarding packaging is providing insightful information about date labels, cooking instructions and thawing. That means assessing and finding better methods of dealing with food so that it lasts and dispensing it can be done without compromising the rest of the unused food.

Proper equipment

Choosing reliable solutions for the manufacturing process is vital for companies to ensure they’re compliant and offer safe products on the market. Food processing equipment must deal with solid, semi-solid and liquid products, sometimes continuously, depending on the operation’s demand. However, these apparatuses also need to be maintained to provide the best services and functionalities.

For example, maintaining equipment contains some of the following tasks:

Inventory and risk assessment to assess the dangers each piece poses and ensure hazards are controlled;
Timed optimisation dates where your team does maintenance and ensures everything’s in good condition;
Documenting maintenance procedures with detailed descriptions of how each piece was handled;
Temporary fixes might also be needed in some cases when minor issues are not linked with maintenance;
Designated authority is a must because someone needs to be responsible for ensuring equipment is liable;

The processing industry needs to ensure product safety, flexibility and efficiency in order for companies to progress. Tasks made with alfraequipment such as quality control before shipment and local support need to be prioritised for customers to leverage the best products.

Accurate forecasting

Companies usually need to forecast the products that will be in demand over a one-year period, but sometimes interpreting data can be misleading if it’s not unbiased. In some cases, managers think they need to be prepared for any case, which leads to them boosting manufacturing products and ending up with wasting a considerable amount of it. Therefore, long-term forecasting isn’t efficient.

On the other hand, short-term forecasting is more accurate, especially when sales volumes are high, so bigger companies have it easier because of the varied assortment of products. And let’s not forget that forecasting can be done more efficiently in stable business, so enterprises might need to work on these two elements before starting to show good results.

Forecasting can be improved with machine learning algorithms and advanced software solutions that analyse historical sales data considering various internal and external factors to predict future trends accurately.

Strategic portion sizes

Food waste is usually a cause of big portioning. As businesses changed the portion size to be more prominent over time, customers had the impression they were buying just enough, but the truth is that these portions are very misleading for people. Therefore, it’s always best to choose smaller portions to avoid waste.

The standardisation of food portions is not only a serious cause of waste but also one of the leading factors of obesity in people. Studies have shown that as portion sizes increased, the prevalence of obesity, at least in the UK, has followed a similar dynamic. And it has been found that portion size has a long-term effect on what people eat, which is something companies may have leveraged to decrease their costs.

Depending on the food manufacturing business you lead, it’s best to consider the audience you’re talking to. For example, family-sized portions may differ in certain countries, as culture plays an essential role in how much people eat and what they eat.

Better consumer education

Finally, companies should focus more on customer education. That’s because an informed client will make the right decision immediately, which benefits businesses as they don’t have to lure people into buying products they haven’t tried. If you’re mitigating food waste, you must know that it usually happens in households, as people are not well-educated about what they buy.

Businesses are not obliged to do this, but providing guidelines, tips and similar information on portion sizes or preserving leftovers can make a difference. In most cases, clients throw away anything that seems to have a weird smell, even if they haven’t kept it correctly, so that the food can last longer. Reducing individual impact can help minimise food waste globally. Of course, this movement may take years to show palpable results, but if there’s a mix of implications from both companies and customers, balanced meals and safer products will be ensured.

Bottom line

The manufacturing and processing stages of providing food products are some of the most complex. At the same time, during these processes, food waste occurs, which not only impacts operational revenue but also leads to increasing food waste. Therefore, a few tips on avoiding considerable debris will save the planet and people’s lives.