Page 22 - Food&Drink Business magazine June 2022

FOOD WASTE
✷
ACTION PLAN
“The team at SFWA are the food waste reduction experts.
They listened to us, helped us identify where our most pressing needs and challenges lay, and then took that information and turned it into a document that consolidates all of our thinking.
“Having the plan provides the impetus for us to take action and do so much more in this space than any one business or person could have done on their own – and as a result the whole industry will benefit.”
The Food Cold Chain SAP has 20 targeted actions over the short, medium and long term that SWFA will now work with the AFCCC on delivering.
300kg
OF FOOD PER PERSON PER YEAR GOES UNEATEN IN AUSTRALIA.
and increasing the number of Australians with food security.
“The Food Rescue SAP details how we will collectively achieve our three goals: increasing the volume of edible, nutritious food recovered; decreasing the volume of food waste all along the food value chain; and improving the collection and distribution of rescued food to assist food insecure people in Australia,” Pennell says.
“This work will have a positive impact on the lives of millions of Australians who are currently food insecure as well as helping reduce this country’s food waste.
TWO PLANS DONE, WHICH ONE NEXT?
With the Food Cold Chain and Food Rescue Sector Action Plans (SAP) completed, which industry SAPs are next for Stop Food Waste Australia?
MEAT
Key stakeholders include Meat and Livestock Australia, supported by the Queensland Government.
DAIRY
Key stakeholders include Dairy Australia and the Australian Dairy Products Federation, supported by Sustainability Victoria.
RIGHT: Foodbank Northern Territory in action as food insecurity increases.
BREAD AND BAKERY
Stakeholders include the Bakery Association of Australia, the Australian Food & Grocery Council, Coles, Goodman Fielder, George Weston Foods, Bakers Delight, Bob & Pete’s Bakery, the Stock Feed Manufacturers’ Council of Australia, and supported by the NSW EPA.
HORTICULTURE
Supported by the Queensland government.
HOSPITALITY AND FOOD SERVICE
Key stakeholders include Australian Food Service Advocacy Body.
INSTITUTIONS
Key stakeholders include the Institute of Hospitality in Healthcare.
Want to know more about a particular SAP and how you can get involved? Visit stopfoodwaste.com. au/sector-action-plans/.
FOOD RESCUE PLAN
Food rescue organisation Foodbank Australia’s latest Hunger Report found one in six Australians experience food insecurity. Every week, 1.2 million children go hungry, sometimes going whole days without eating every week.
Juxtaposing these startling figures against those of our food waste profile, where
nearly 300 kilograms of food per person per year goes uneaten, highlights the timeliness and importance of our latest SAP for Food Rescue.
Australia’s food rescue sector already does incredible work, and SFWA has been privileged to work with the country’s four biggest providers Foodbank, Ozharvest, Fareshare, and SecondBite in co-designing the Food Rescue SAP.
Foodbank Australia general manager of business Sarah Pennell says the plan has created two complementary outcomes: reducing food waste
“For the sector itself, having SWFA bring us together to work on this has been game changing. We’ve been able to increase our understanding of each other and our shared challenges, which makes addressing them easier and more effective.”
For Pennell, the openness in the sector has been welcomed, helping agencies realise they are not alone in facing the barriers to delivering real impact.
With five more industry SAPs in the pipeline, the impact once all are in operation will
be impressive.
Our goal is to halve waste by 2030;we’reonourway. ✷
✷ ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
Mark Barthel is the chief operating officer of Stop Food Waste Australia. He has worked in food and agricultural sustainable innovation for 25 years, with more than half that time quantifying and preventing food loss and waste around the world.
As a major supply chain stage where food waste occurs, the cold chain was the first industry to have a Sector Action Plan developed.
22 | Food&Drink business | June 2022 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au