September/October 2023 - 16

FOOD WASTE
The EPA's Food Waste Hierarchy lists preferred
disposal methods of unavoidable waste. For
example, anaerobic digestion is preferable to
landfill. Photo courtesy of HRS Heat Exchangers.
WASTE NOT,
CUT COSTS
TIPS TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE DURING PROCESSING
By Matt Hale,
international sales
and marketing
director, HRS Heat
Exchangers
ACCORDING TO SOME ESTIMATES,
MORE than a third of all food produced
globally is wasted. The U.S. wastes about
80 billion pounds of food a year, of
which 2% comes from manufacturing,
according to environmental website
Eco.Logic.
While not all of this material is edible,
in terms of efficiency and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, prevention
of this waste is preferable to other
methods, such as food redistribution or
use as animal feed, recycling, energy
generation or disposal via anaerobic
digestion, composting, incineration
or landfill.
Wasted food also has significant
financial costs for businesses. Not only
does the raw material have a cost, but
additional costs are associated with
the redistribution or disposal of waste
food products.
KEY WAYS TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE
Improve packaging
Good quality packaging improves
the shelf life of food and therefore
reduces waste in the distribution chain
and in households. However, there is
increasingly a balance between reducing
16 SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2023
the use of plastics and non-recyclable
materials while increasing product shelf
life (wrapping cucumbers in plastic is
a classic example). Choosing the right
packaging during the manufacturing
process can improve shelf life and reduce
handling, improving efficiencies and
reducing waste.
Improve forecasting
Inaccurate forecasting can mean you
waste raw materials and ingredients.
Don't assume that you need to
produce a certain number of
products unless you have clear
evidence for such demand (such
as agreed orders or demand
modeling).
Ordering enough ingredients
to produce a certain volume of
product but actually producing
less is one of the biggest sources
of waste in food businesses,
particularly when using fresh or
perishable ingredients.
Measure and plan
Without measuring waste, you
can't tell if you are reducing it,
or adequately calculate what it
is costing you. Feeding this data
into company-wide systems so
that it can be analyzed centrally
helps to ident i fy areas of
inefficiency and waste, allowing
manufacturers to streamline
processes and reduce waste.
Review quality control systems
Quality control is vital to maintain
standards and food safety, but there is
a need to avoid overzealous standards
which may result in ingredients which
are perfectly usable being discarded.
Likewise, under- or overcooking food
or having unnecessary trimmings or
off-cuts results in unnecessary waste.
As well as making sure that the quality
standards and specifications being applied
are appropriate for the product, it is also
 The HRS R Series of heat exchangers uses a scraper bar within
the inner tube to enhance product flow, prevent fouling and minimize
pressure drop. Photo courtesy of HRS Heat Exchangers.
September/October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September/October 2023
