Using surplus food for good: how Quorn streamlined redistribution and cut warehouse waste by 46%

*emission factor was based on Carbon Trust report), which is equivalent to taking 3,400 cars off the road for a year (average car emissions, average annual milage).

Problem

Although Quorn had been redistributing surplus food for several years, the approach was organic and varied across markets. It was led by colleagues who were passionate about tackling food insecurity and primarily limited to the UK, despite being a global brand, and lacked formal systems to identify suitable stock for redistribution or facilitate and track donations to charity partners. Despite best intentions, food that was safe and suitable for consumption was sometimes still wasted.

As a pioneering company, and as one of the very first meat alternative producers and the largest business of its kind in the UK, Quorn take their responsibility to lead the sector in their approach to sustainability seriously. They recognised the need the need for mechanisms of accountability and knowledge sharing, particularly when industry-wide efforts are vital to tackle our biggest challenges like food waste and food insecurity.

Solution

As part of the UK Food and Drink Pact’s Redistribution and Target-Measure-Act collaborative working groups, Quorn learned from other businesses and connected with food charities that have become their key food donation partners in the UK, including Fareshare, The Bread and Butter Thing and City Harvest.

Driven by the success of their new UK charity partnerships, Quorn established an internal cross-functional working group to increase global food redistribution whilst improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary food waste. The group was made up of Planning, Customer Service, Sustainability, Sales, Innovation Chef, Regulatory and Quality teams in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. They engaged their C-suite to sponsor and raise visibility of the project. Each team continues to play a key role:

• Sales colleagues and Innovation Chefs in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany support with identifying local charity partners
• The Sustainability team perform due diligence on charity partners, agree donation procedures with them (e.g. collection or delivery) and report monthly progress against Quorn targets
• The Regulatory team ensured traceability by working closely with Fareshare to create a compliance document with all information relating to donations, as required by most food charities. This is available for businesses to download and adapt to meet requirements in different markets.
• The Quality team assure food safety by assisting on shelf-life extension for products close to or beyond best-before dates. They also developed a shelf-life extension form which is widely accepted by global charities.
• Every month, the Planning team identifies suitable stock for donation across markets and the Customer Service team (which owns the relationships) contacts charities directly to offer the stock and facilitate logistics.

Engaging the right people globally, with complementary capabilities into the working group, was key to success. It strengthened operational practices, reduced the risk of surplus product being missed or delayed, and embedded redistribution as a core sustainability behaviour across the business. Senior leadership sponsorship also ensured barriers were removed quickly and helped accelerate implementation.

Impact

Within its first year, the streamlined food redistribution process delivered significant social, environmental and operational benefits.

Warehouse food waste per tonne of product reduced by 46% compared to 2023, contributing to a 17% reduction in relative food waste across the business since 2019.  

This reduction enabled Quorn to avoid 4,584 tonnes of CO₂e, the equivalent of removing 3,400 cars from the road for a year. (emission factor was based on Carbon Trust report)

Quorn donated nearly 2.1 million portions of food in 2024, more than doubling its annual donation goal. The new approach also saved £55,263 in annual logistics costs that would have been spent on storing, delivering and transporting stock on rental pallets.

Encouraged by success in tackling finished goods food waste, Quorn are actively looking into solutions to other food waste sources at their factories to further reduce costs and cut Scope 3 emissions. This includes exploring routes for redistribution of misshaped products and chub ends, which could avoid an extra 75 tonnes of food waste every year. In parallel, Operations and Planning teams are working hard on reducing and avoiding food waste in the first place through better planning and productivity.

Quorn continue to engage in the UK Food and Drink Pact’s Redistribution and Target-Measure-Act working groups where they learn how peers tackle food waste issues as well as sharing their own challenges and successes.

The food charities we connected with in the UK Food and Drink Pact are now our key surplus food donation partners. It has opened the door to volunteering opportunities for our colleagues which has inspired them to strive more for success in food redistribution. At Quorn Foods, we emphasise every contribution counts, and every colleague brings us closer to our Net Positive ambition, as exemplified by this project.

Bibi Rodgers Hunt, Head of Sustainability and Khanh Mach, Sustainability Manager at Quorn Foods