Page 20 - Food & Drink March 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
RIGHT: Suez ANZ CEO Mark Venhoek and Yume CEO and founder are passionate about reducing commercial food waste.
BELOW (TOP): The Yume and Suez food waste installation was a dramatic display of just how much food is wasted every day.
BELOW (BOTTOM): Yume CEO Katy Barfield is the 2019 AFR Women of Influence Business & Entrepreneur Award Winner.
20 | Food&Drink business | March 2020 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
On the front line
Every day in Australia 4.1 million tonnes of edible food is wasted, and more than half of that comes from the commercial food sector. B2B marketplace Yume and waste management company Suez have partnered to do something to do about it. Doris Prodanovic writes.
WHEN discussing sustainability, the question of how material waste reaches its end of life is often front of mind. But what about the waste of the product inside of the packaging material – in this case, food?
Food waste is often identified as large amounts of unused, left over or discarded edible food.
Rabobank’s 2019 Food Waste Report said Australia’s annual food waste spend grew in 2019 to $10.1 billion, up 13 per cent from the year before. It found 31 per cent came from primary production andmanufacturing accountedfor 25 per cent.
Yume is an Australian B2B
marketplace combating food waste in the commercial food sector. It is one of only two companies in the world tackling food waste in the commercial sector.
Yume founder Katy Barfield told Food & Drink Business: “There is very little reason for edible food to be going into landfill and legislative action needs to be taken to combat food waste.”
Yume has 2500 registered buyers and 250 suppliers, including Kellogg’s, Unilever Food Services, Parmalat, Huon Salmon and Allied Pinnacle.
Sinceitbeganfiveyearsago, Yume has sold 1,350,000 kilograms of surplus food and returned