Campbell Canada partnered with Provision Coalition, Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sustainability organization, to reduce food loss and waste in its Toronto facility and pilot Provision’s online Food Waste Reduction Toolkit. Enviro-Stewards was engaged to assist with conducting a food waste prevention assessment.
This project was awarded Project of the Year by Clean50 in 2017.
Highlights
- Implementing identified food waste reduction measures, with a net payback period of less than 6 months, could increase the yield of Campbell Canada’s Toronto facility by 938 tonnes per year valued at $706,000.
Campbell Canada annually conducts a solid waste audit in accordance with Ontario’s 3 Rs regulations. However, this audit has little impact on food waste as assessments are normally completed at the dumpster and only 1% of the company’s food waste is lost at landfill. As with many other operations, the majority of food loss + waste occurs within the facility during production, which is the focus of the FLW toolkit.
The food waste assessment started with an evaluation of the entire processing facility from raw vegetable receiving to final product packaging and canning. The quantity and value of food waste was then determined along the production process by using the FLW toolkit, followed by a “5 Why” approach to identify root causes of each waste stream. Possible solutions for reducing each food waste stream were considered, and an implementation plan was developed for selected measures that were quantified using the FLW Toolkit.
"“This has been a rewarding process for the team at Campbell Canada in Toronto. We have been committed to Provision’s food loss + waste reduction challenge for some time and now we have successfully applied the recently developed Toolkit in our own facility. Food loss + waste has a direct impact on food insecurity – 1 in 8 Canadian families struggle to put food on the table – with 20% of waste occurring at the manufacturing level we have an important role to play. Provision’s Food Loss + Waste Reduction Toolkit is available to manufacturers across the country, this is a milestone achievement for the industry." - John Lillard, Research & Development, Campbell Company of Canada
Food Loss + Waste Reduction Opportunities
Opportunity 1 | $259,000
Product Push at End of Production Runs
Campbell Canada’s aseptic packaging facility is losing about 897 kg of finished product per day within three separate transfer pipes at the end of each production run.
Opportunity 2 | $61,000
Manual Sort of Vegetables
Campbell Canada uses fresh raw vegetables as a main ingredient in soups. Once received at the facility, potatoes and carrots are peeled and manually sorted to remove off specification produce. Potatoes and carrots then share a common conveyor system following the peeler. The food waste prevention assessment found that excessive amounts of vegetables that were of satisfactory condition were diverted to waste.
Opportunity 3 | $227,000
Optical Sort of Vegetables
When carrots and potatoes are received at the facility they are sorted, sliced and diced followed by optical sorter processing to remove blemished vegetables. Floor measurements found that collateral losses of good quality carrots and potatoes amounts to 799 tonnes per year. It was found that by reprocessing or decreasing the speed of the optical sorter, collateral losses could be reduced by 2/3.
Opportunity 4 | $171,000
Can Pre-Filling
Campbell Canada’s canned soup production process pre-fills cans with key ingredients before adding the soup base and sealing the can. The food waste prevention assessment found reoccurring losses of frozen beef and chicken, one of the highest valued ingredients, at certain points in the can filler and weight checking process.
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Canada’s Food Waste Problem
In Canada, 43% of avoidable food waste occurs in processing and manufacturing, presenting enormous opportunity for manufacturers to take action to positively impact the environment—and their bottom line. Avoidable waste costs approximately $49.5 billion each year, reduces the supply of food available to eat and contributes to climate change through methane emissions in landfill.
Funding for this project has been provided by:
Thank you to our project partners:
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