Bidvest Foodservice’s first Plate2Planet Summit took place in central London. During the day, guest speakers and two panel sessions offered insight into sustainability, from creating an ethical supply chain to waste management, the sugar debate to environmental collaboration across sectors.
Here are five things that Better Wholesaling learned on the day:
1. According to the most recent research, there is 0.9m tonnes of food wasted each year across the total food chain. 2.4m is wasted at the manufacturing stage, and we waste 7m tonnes as consumers in the home each year. This equates to a fifth of what we buy. All food waste adds up to £2.5bn per year.
2. According to waste charity WRAP, there are four challenges that face the industry in terms of sustainability: how products are designed and sourced more sustainably; how products are produced and move through the supply chain more efficiently; how products are consumed with less waste and how to get more value from the waste and the surplus generated.
3. Four main challenges will affect sustainability in the food sector in the future: an increasing population; more mega-cities; increased poverty and climate change. To shine a light on the UK food sector, Bidvest has collaborated with Foodservice Footprint to publish the first sustainability index trends report so the industry can begin to measure progress, and has launched the Plate2Planet online portal.
4. Transparency across the global supply chain and tracing whether subcontractors and agencies are upholding standards in an environment of increased commercial pressure is one of the main challenges in combating modern slavery and working towards an ethical supply chain, says Nestle’s Anna Turrell.
5. Simple actions can address waste in restaurants. For example, the Crieff Hydro, in Scotland was able to reduce its waste by engaging all staff in awareness raising and practical measures, for example reducing their buffet container sizes, and using more small-batch preparation. The chain reduced waste by £52,000 per year on one site alone.
Does’t sound very productive. Round and round we go with the lip service.
And Nestle talking about sustainability. A company that thinks it has the right to steal water resources wherever it likes. Give me a break.
When are we going to see some real action taken at these conferences instead of more hot air by the corporates that are causing the problems and the idiots buying into their poisonous rhetoric.