Waste production is a pressing goal for many food production manufacturers. Not only does this contribute to a more sustainable attitude towards food, it should also help manufacturers secure more efficient, cost-effective output. This article outlines the top five steps food production companies can take to reduce waste, whether that’s within their production facility or from the consumer side.
Ways to reduce waste in food manufacturing
In food manufacturing, waste can encompass both packaging materials and ingredients or end products. We’re detailing the top five steps your production line should consider to keep waste to a minimum or even contribute to a zero-waste initiative.
1. Speak to your production team
When making decisions that affect or involve your production team, you could save a lot of time and guesswork by speaking with them. Get someone to conduct a walk-through of the process, identifying areas that need improvement. Production line managers will know better than anyone what could be done to reduce waste on your food production line. This will also help your workforce feel listened to, which as an added bonus could boost morale. They’ll be able to voice their everyday frustrations and concerns and even suggest solutions that could level up your production efficiency and output quality. It’s a win-win outcome!
2. Review ingredient and material weights
The weights of your raw ingredients and packaging should be checked as soon as they arrive at your facility. By reviewing actual weights against expected end product weights, you can determine whether your weights exceed or fall below the projected end result. This helps reduce scrap rates. However, weights should be monitored throughout the process to ensure weight increases don’t creep into the pipeline and render your product unsellable. That’s where investing in precision-driven machinery can also benefit your production line and reduce waste. We recommend accurate machines and manual checks for the sweet spot in reducing scrap rates.
3. Educate your team
If your company is championing a zero-waste initiative, educating your team helps get everyone invested. If team members need to change anything in their day-to-day role or contribute ideas to help reduce waste, informing them means your initiative is more likely to succeed than fall through the cracks or get off to a stagnant start. Updating in team meetings, sending email newsletters, posting on a team intranet or having training days can all help ensure everyone’s kept in the loop and is on the same page.
4. Review machinery performance
Machinery performance is critical to ensuring efficiency and reducing waste in your production. An easy way to resolve this is to walk through your end-to-end process. Identify any inefficiencies and explore updates in technology that could help you remove some outdated or unnecessary steps from the process entirely.
Some production companies also leverage real-time trackers to identify from an easy-to-view interface any problem areas within the pipeline. This helps production managers spot issues before they significantly affect production.
By reducing the steps required to generate the same (or better) results, you could also reduce the amount of energy required to produce your food products.
Some food producers are changing the way they look at food production entirely. Instead of mass-producing products, they’re actively adapting to suit the latest insights on consumer demand. This flexible approach helps improve the likelihood of products being sold rather than left on the shelves and wasted. It’s an ingenious way to reduce overproduction, a current problem in the UK food supply chain. This does require a more agile, flexible and bespoke food production process—something that S4 Engineering can help with.
5. Choose your packaging carefully
When choosing packaging to reduce waste, it’s not just about choosing recycled or biodegradable materials. It’s also about choosing packaging that has the capacity to extend the shelf life of food produce and reduce waste at supermarkets or at home. You could even be creative with your instructions on the packaging, offering inventive ways customers can use leftover produce to level up their meals. Being clear on best-before, sell-by dates and storage instructions will also help reduce waste (as well as keep your products compliant with consumer regulators).
Make us part of your waste reduction project
S4 Engineering provides end-to-end production line upgrades and instalments. If waste reduction is one of your goals, speak to our team. We’ll be able to survey your current systems to identify areas for improvements and recommend bespoke machines built with the latest waste-reducing technology. We’ve provided food and beverage processing equipment to leading companies, including Britvic, Young’s and Dorset Cereals. Contact us today to get your food waste reduction project started.
