Dive Brief:
- Smithfield Foods has pledged tocut food loss and wastein its U.S. company-owned operations in half by 2030. The pork producer said itplans to achieve this goalthrough loss prevention, recovering wasted food to donate, and recycling waste for applications such as animal feed, compost and energy generation.
- The company has also joined the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency’sFood Loss and Waste Champions— a list of businesses including CPGs like Campbell Soup,ConagraFoods and Unilever that have pledged to halve their waste by 2030, in alignment with the federal goal.And it has joined the global10x20x30 initiative, which brings together retailers and their suppliers committed to the same goal.
- Smithfield's new target adds to its earlier commitments to cut垃圾送到垃圾填埋场. In setting concrete goals, it raises the stakes for other meat processors who seek to raise the sustainability profile他们自己的公司和行业作为一个整体in the eyes of consumers.
Dive Insight:
Smithfield’s commitment to halve food loss and waste by 2030 gives it the opportunity to build on waste reduction goals itfirst set in 2019. The Virginia-based pork producerlaunched an initiativeto reduce overall waste sent to landfills 75% by 2025, which came in tandem with a goal to cut its emissions by 25%. The company also aims to recycle at least 50% of accumulated waste and limit waste incineration at its facilities that achieve zero-waste certification.
In a form submittedto the USDA and EPA, the pork giant said one way it plans to hit its 2030 goal is through recycling materials for animal feed, like wheat that is left over from flour milling or spent grains from whiskey and beer production. The company said it now also includes byproducts from bread, snack food and baked goods facilities.
In 2020, Smithfield also invested in specialized equipment for its feed mills that efficiently processes packaged bakery products that are otherwise difficult to recycle and unsuitable for human consumption into animal feed, enabling it to divert 23,000 tons of waste from landfills.
For meat producers like Smithfield, trying a range of tactics to cut down on food waste will be critical. The livestock industry produces 1.4 billion pounds of waste per year, mainly due to the parts of the animal that cannot be used such as bones, tendons and skin,The Atlantic reported.About 5% of food loss and waste by weight occurs during the processing and packaging stage of meat production,according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The EPA has highlighted the outsized impact thatfood waste from meat productionhason the environment.In a November reportexamining the issue, the agency cited research showing that while pork production does not emit as much greenhouse gases as beef, veal and lamb, it did produce more than poultry.
Smithfield is not the only major pork producer to set food waste reduction goals. In 2020, meat giant Hormel, which is also a member of the 10x20x30 initiative,announcedit had reducedthe amount of solid waste sent to landfills from its supply chain by 38 tons.
