Deep dive uncovers hidden food waste reduction opportunities

Problem

When English Provender Company joined the UK Food and Drink Pact, the biggest challenge they were facing was making sense of food waste data and understanding where it occurred in their operations. Like many businesses, their reporting previously focussed on financial KPIs which didn’t reveal the full picture.

But with new company-wide commitments covering emissions, water, responsible sourcing, healthy sustainable food and waste, EPC needed a new approach.

Solution

Switching to weight-based reporting on food loss and waste

In 2024, the English Provender Company joined the UK Food and Drink Pact to reduce its food waste. Using WRAP’s reporting framework, they aligned themselves to the Pact’s food waste reporting metrics which measures waste by weight instead of cost. They quickly realised that their financial KPI metrics were only tracking food that was formally written off through their waste business process. Measuring by weight gave the company a new perspective and motivated a deep dive into their food waste.

Combining the financial benefits with doing the right thing for the planet, setting a target to reduce food loss and waste is a no brainer.

Carl Steckerl​, English Provender Company ESG Business Lead, The Billington Group

Gathering insights through food loss and waste mapping

With support from their waste contractor, P.H. Hull & Sons, they​ completed a mass balance exercise, working back to discover the sources of food waste.​ From the mapping exercise, English Provender Company identified and allocated food waste to four key sources, discovering new opportunities depending on whether the waste was being classified or not:

1. Good raw materials/work in progress not used​
2. Good product lost due to hygiene​
3. Substandard product​
4. Good products not sold​.

The biggest knowledge gap was food waste in effluent streams - wastewater generated from food production processes - leading EPC to conduct a sampling exercise on solids in the sludge removed from site in tankers. This resulted in more accurate reporting and understanding of their food waste sources.​

Identifying food loss and waste reduction opportunities

For each significant source, EPC completed a “look and see” exercise to validate their findings, gather more insight and look for reduction opportunities.​ They developed an action plan for three food waste reduction priorities across two manufacturing sites, engaging teams to enable continued learning about the reasons for food waste and to help further develop and refine solutions.

EPC discovered that a substantial amount of food was left inside their pallecon liners, which are used to transport and store bulk food products. A key solution to reduce food loss and waste was the installation of two mangles - machinery with rollers used to squeeze or press products to extract liquid or maximise product recovery.

Impact

At site A, food waste from pallecon liners reduced by 95%, almost eliminating an entire food waste source.

Whilst they are still rolling out changes at site B, food waste from pallecon liners has already reduced by 50% to date.

Within just one month of installing the mangles, English Provender Company achieved a return on their investment in savings from food waste and have already reached a 10% total reduction on food waste across the business, accelerating progress to halve food waste by 2030.

Looking forward, English Provender Company will scale these successful solutions across all manufacturing sites to make a higher reduction in food loss and waste. Continuous improvement processes are being built to get more out of the opportunities that aren’t yet delivering on their full potential, and they’re dedicated to helping their teams build confidence and knowledge on food waste reduction by sharing the impact that they’re contributing to.

You can’t solve a problem without understanding it first. That’s why, [following WRAP’s food waste reporting framework], we started with the data from our waste contractor and worked backwards to identify the sources and causes of food waste, and therefore the opportunities to reduce it.​

There are opportunities to do the right thing and doing the right thing doesn’t always cost more.

Carl Steckerl​, English Provender Company ESG Business Lead, The Billington Group