How the Biscuit Industry is Helping to Minimize Food Wastage

Bread, biscuits and cakes rank high on the list of food wasted, so to what extent can bakery manufacturers drive environmental progress and help reduce food wastage? Paul Featherstone, group director of food recycler, SugaRich, investigated for Biscuit World.

In April 2014, the House of Lords EU Committee revealed startling findings from their ‘Counting the Cost of Food Waste: EU Food Waste Prevention’ report1. At least 90 million tones of food is said to be wasted across the EU every year.

According to a report into UK food waste published in November 2013 by the Waste Resource Action Plan (WRAP)2, bread tops the list of food thrown away uneaten, with the equivalent of a staggering 24 million slices of bread wasted daily, whilst sweet treats like cakes rank high on the list too.

Legislative pressures and environmental targets have gone some way to encourage progress. The EU’s pledge to halve edible food waste by 2020 is an ever-pressing driver, as is the media’s continued scrutiny over unsustainable surplus food practices. Commercial factors have also had a distinct part to play because, whilst some organizations want to demonstrate stronger ‘green’ credentials to enhance their reputation and uphold their corporate social responsibility, others simply cannot afford the ever-rising charges associated with traditional landfill disposal or anaerobic digestion.

You can read more on this feature on the last issue of our print magazine Biscuit World.