An ingredients firm is championing a drive to cut out food waste after signing up to a national scheme.
Stowmarket-based Muntons is the first maltster to commit to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap which charts waste and supports efforts to cut it by 50% across the whole food chain by 2030.
The scheme is run by not-for-profit organisation WRAP and IGD, a research and training charity for the food and grocery industry.
Muntons, which said it was “proud” to be the first maltster to join up, has a long history of developing a sustainable model for its business, and championing environmental awareness in the malt industry.
MORE – ‘Malt brand is ideally located in Suffolk – but A14 needs an upgrade’Muntons food waste is “minimal” at 0.51% but the ethos of looking for any waste reduction opportunity and sharing our actions through case studies is consistent with the company’s values, it said.
Around 60% of the UK food and drink sector by turnover is adopting the approach,, which is designed to “target, measure, act” on food waste.
The focus is on preventing food surplus and waste being generated in the first place, redistributing surplus food that does arise and diverting surplus food which cannot be used to feed people into animal feed and high value biomaterial processing.
Muntons’ sustainability boss Dr Nigel Davies said the company was “proud to continue to take the lead in the malting supply chain in adopting a practical sustainability ethos” and join a growing number of supply chain partners thinking positively about sustainability.
“The agricultural supply chain uses valuable natural resources to create highly nutritive food yet globally at least 30% of that food is wasted before it gets to the consumer and then after it is taken home.
WRAP director Peter Maddox said the link between food waste and climate change is “something we can no longer ignore”.
“Globally, around a third of all food is wasted and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that food waste contributed nearly 10% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, between 2010 and 2016.
“Having the support of companies like Muntons is crucial in helping to mitigate against this problem through their own actions, and by engaging with their customer base.
“We are delighted that Muntons is supporting the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap in this way and will work with its clients to influence change. We would encourage others to follow its lead.”
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