Sustainable Food Digest | Issue Two

Can all the positive little pictures have a butterfly effect on the big one?

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Think small, not big

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orget about the big picture when it comes to sustainability. It’s dispiriting and demotivating, and worst of all the big picture obscures all the little pictures going on, all the energetic, sincere and ongoing efforts by so many people in the food and drink industry to make it operate in a more eco-friendly fashion than it did yesterday.

Look closely to see how ingenious some of these projects are. How some were niche and quirky a decade ago, like vertically-farmed herbs, but have turned out to be prescient, and profitable. The food and drink industry is constantly developing new and endlessly

inventive ways of doing things, adopting fresh approaches that achieve results and are ready for scale. And I love how so many of these efforts eschew drama and calmly take care of business, sustainably, steadily, and without fuss, making little differences that all add up to progress.

Some people label the food system broken. Maybe it doesn’t work perfectly, and given the ever-increasing size of the task at hand, perhaps it never will. But some very fine reasons why the food system is not broken are detailed over the next few pages, bright spots one and all. It would be a shame to miss them.

by James Halliwell Business editor at Food Matters Live

CONTENTS

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FACT OR FICTION?

MOY PARK CAREERS

FUTURE FARMING

KEPAK CAREERS

SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD

ABOUT US

FUTURE PACKAGING

CONTACT US

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Sustainable Suprises...

by James Halliwell

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he Sustainable Food Forum played host to food developers from around the world as they discussed ways for the food and drink industry to operate more sustainably.

The main auditorium played host to the big questions, the side sessions explored the niche ones, from almonds to microalgae and everything in between. Perceptions were challenged, frank opinions were expressed, received wisdom was uprooted.

But when it comes to sustainability, would you expect anything less?

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very issue has a cause célèbre. One of the most controversial eco-issues when it comes to food and drink surrounds the humble almond. And yes, as nuts go, the almond looks innocent.

But it has a disgraceful reputation.

The almond is a versatile ingredient, used in everything from marzipan to masalas.

Most agree it’s a pleasant nut. But it’s also hailed as an infamous example of everything that’s wrong with modern food production.

In this instance, a horribly skewed balance between a single ingredient and the natural resource it takes to grow it.

The amount of water used to grow a single almond is enough to make you choke on one. Read it and weep buckets - it takes one gallon of water to grow one almond.

A gallon is around four litres of water. And taken at face value, that does seem a wildly disproportionate amount to grow one nut. How could anyone justify eating an almond croissant ever again?

Maybe we should switch to walnuts? But it takes five gallons of water to grow a walnut.

That ’s five times as much water as it takes to grow one almond. So maybe we should avoid nuts and stick to fruit. Only an orange requires 13 gallons of water to grow. An apple requires 18 gallons of water. What about meat? It takes hundreds of gallons of water to raise a chicken and thousands of gallons to raise a cow to turn into dozens of steaks.

The story is that growing plants and animals requires water. Traditionally and historically, anyway. And like most industries that use water in production, the food and drink industry is constantly trying to use less. It’s permanently trying

to be more sustainable, in the main.

As Fabia Bromovsky (see right) notes, when it comes to the sustainable debate, a holistic appraisal is merited. It’s what the almond industry did. After being dragged for how thirsty it was, it adopted a holistic approach to production, like a nose-to-tail philosophy applied to a nut. It can use less water, but of course it can’t evaporate it from the process altogether, or else the almond industry evaporates. So how can it be more sustainable?

Apart from the nut itself, an unprocessed almond has three elements. The hull, the shell, and old trees from orchards. The hulls can now be used to bulk up animal feed, and to grow mushrooms.

More unusually, the shells can be used to grow black solider fly larvae, which are used to feed chickens and f ish. They can also be added to recycled p l a s tic to m a ke it stronger.

At las t count , the Almond industry g en era te d 9 0 0 , 0 0 0 tonnes of shells and a similar haul of hulls, plus over two million tired trees, adding up to almost four million tonnes of woody waste, which, in less enlightened times, would have been just that. Waste.

Now that waste can be converted to over £3bn worth of biochemicals, biocarbons and bio-oils, and offset 3.8 million tonnes of CO 2 . By comparison, during 2022 the entire UK sent 3.3 million tonnes of CO 2 into the atmosphere. So when you take the situation in the round, and adopt a different perspective, the almond is sounding like it could become a little hero, and a cause célèbre for good sustainable reasons, rather than unsustainable ones.

Crack that nut.

The amount of water it takes to grow a single almond is enough to make you choke on one.

SPE AKER Q& A

Sustainable Food Forum Speaker Q&A: Fabia Bromovsky

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abia Bromovsky is CEO at the Sustainable Food Trust. As well as food and drink, she has extensive experience in philanthropy, the arts, culture and heritage industries.

She has a personal interest in sustainability, food and farming, and a degree in mathematics from Oxford University. She took part in a panel at Food Matters Live’s Sustainable Food Forum to discuss what mainstreaming sustainable food consumption could look like in the future.

Food Matters Live: We’ve heard some frank exchanges at the Sustainable Food Forum.

Why is conversation important?

FML: Farming takes a lot of flak in the sustainability debate recently. How do you see it?

Fabia Bromovsky: I think we all work very much in our own silos, and one can live in an echo chamber of one’s own ideas and views.

And it’s only when you come out into some of these conferences, and listen to some of these discussions, that you see the world from everybody else’s perspective.

You see the monster that you’re trying to battle with at times, but you also see the people to collaborate with, because the problems in our world were not created because we were trying to do things wrong.

We were not trying to poison our planet.

We were trying to solve the problems that we saw at the time, like hunger or post-war problems. And what we’ve realised is that the solution for one problem often generates other problems. And so, it’s a diversity of solutions that we need to solve the problems that we face today. And we need to constantly be monitoring what we’re doing to make sure that as we come up with new solutions, the outcomes are those solutions are the ones that we predicted and hoped for.

FB: You have to consider the whole system and not just the carbon system. Net zero is on everyone’s lips, and now, because there will be a requirement for the big food companies to report on their scope three, which is the impact that they have by buying product that comes from the farming system, all the focus is on carbon.

But actually the system is much bigger than that. It’s a holistic system, we need to look at our biodiversity, all our environmental benefits, the social benefits. We need to be looking holistically at sustainability and not through the one lens.

So once farmers are allowed to farm in the way that they used to farm, which is not necessarily about extraction, but more about farming in a way that gives back to nature, you will see all the co-benefits of the farm.

And if we measure the co-benefits of the farm we realise that they are part of the solution, like the soil’s ability to sequester carbon, then we will build a completely different picture than looking through that one lens, which is the carbon impact of livestock.

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For two days, London played host to a global community of food developers to explore sustainable food and drink

FML: There is a lot of emotion in the sustainable debate, how can data help?

FB: We need to be able to understand and evidence whether we are improving or depleting the system on which we rely, and to find a common agreement as to how we measure data that is useful for farmers to understand their system, and see what’s at risk, and what decisions they can make to improve that both for themselves economically, but also for the planet.

Then that data can also be used as a sort of thread of DNA, in which to evidence good practice, reward good practice, and enable the bigger supply chain that needs this data to be able to support the massive change that needs to take place.

Hundreds of delegates heard from senior industry figures

FML: How else do we approach that massive change?

FB: I think we still have the attitude that we can solve the world through chemistry, through new inputs, through new formulation.

And I think we need to step back from that.

Innovation is an enormously important part of the of the solution, but we need to take a step back first and solve the problems we have created within nature, and the balance within nature, and let nature do its role to solve some of the issues that we face with climate, flooding, soil loss, the lack of fertility in our soils, etc. So we need to start at the bottom, and not just think that we can design our way chemically out of the problem at the other end.

Side sessions explored small but significant sustainable issues

SIDE SESSION

David Erlandsson, from Aliga Microalgae, shows how he created white microalgae, which has a superior taste profile to green

Side Session: The rise of white microalgae

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icroalgae is a potentially potent ingredient in the food and drink space now that progress has been made with taste and flavour, colour and off notes, says David Erlandsson, co-founder of Aliga Microalgae, which has production facilities in Denmark and the Netherlands.

He was attending the Sustainable Food Forum with EIT, a food innovation community funded by the EU, and explained how Aliga had set out to remove the offending genes (e.g. those that produce chlorophyll) in a non-GMO way - and succeeded.

“In the lab we had a student doing her masters degree working on DNA sequencing.

We set her up and after a lot of trial and error she found an algae that was free of the chlorophyll producing gene, which we now have patent-pending.

“It’s a unique selling point for us. Our white microalgae has a neutral taste, it can be used for a broad range of applications where algae previously couldn’t be used, from bakery to chicken to fish.”

A lot of plant-based product introduced to the market does not taste good, he added, but that he is seeing a “second wave” of products that he says are “really good” in terms of taste and nutrition.

“We need to be on a par with the real deal with flavour, and with taste, and with price, because we can’t grow the plantbased industry with just vegans, we need carnivores,” he said.

“White algae is not going to solve that on its own, but it will be one small component in this new and more sustainable food system that we are helping to introduce to the world right now.”

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Fermentation and AI combine to transform by-products into food Bosco Emparanza CEO at MOA

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pain is a sizzling hotbed of food tech and innovation. ICEX Spain Trade and Investment, an agency of the Spanish government that promotes Spanish companies abroad, arrived at the Sustainable Food Forum in a colourful mood. One of its sessions was an informal face-off between a collection of sustainable Spanish food and drink startups, who pitched their concepts in front of a crowd of SFF delegates who then voted for their favourites. The winner was MOA...

Food Matters Live: Congratulations, explain what MOA does?

MOA CEO Bosco Emparanza: We developed a platform that combines biotechnology and AI, that allows us to use by-products from the agri-food industry and transform them through fermentation into high value ingredients that we can introduce in the food chain in different applications, mainly in the plant-based sector.

FML: A tech-heavy approach to sustainable food. And you teamed up with Barilla?

BE: With Barilla we found a way to change the culture media we are using that increases productivity. We also realised a reduction in the cost of the culture media of over 70%.

So by working with Barilla we are more cost efficient and more productive.

FML: Do you have to pay for this raw material, even if it is a by-product?

BE: It varies. Yes, normally, but not always.

We use some by-products that have no value,

and with some we actually get paid to take them away.

FML: How did you get involved with ICEX? BE: In Spain we are really lucky to have ICEX because they really do support start-ups.

They do this from a market perspective, from a fundraising perspective, and by creating this ecosystem where we can grow our connections. For example they have taken us here, next we are heading to the Netherlands, then to Singapore. They have created this connection between corporates and start-ups. They selected us to come here, and that’s how we ended up pitching.

FML: Why do you think you won?

BE: Maybe because of the enthusiasm I have for my project, or the technology that we are using. Fermentation and AI are probably the two most powerful technologies that we have today. These technologies are going to transform the food industry, and we are using them to build a sustainable fermentation industry. We really believe that is going to be a big pillar of the food industry in the future. And I think the audience and the jury felt the same.

FML: What do you see this doing for you in terms of opportunities?

BE: Things like being here today in the UK, in this conference and making connections, that’s always good. And we have made really good connections today, with other start-ups up to big corporates, increasing our ecosystem. So that, really, is the prize for me.

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The weather is nuts. It’s completely off the scale. And that’s all the time. It used to just be each season was nuts, then it was each month is nuts. Now we’re breaking new records every single month.

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A bigger challenge than Brexit

by James Halliwell

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sk a farmer about the benefits of Brexit and you may wish you’d let your dog loose in a field full of their sheep instead. Yet farmer Joe Stanley says the extreme weather caused by climate change is giving farmers a much harder time than the chaos caused by leaving the EU.

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Britain has the potential to be a world leader in sustainable agriculture, but unless we get the support, that won’t happen.

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uts is the only way for farmer Joe Stanley to describe the weather in 2023. At the time of writing it’s belting it down in the wake of Storm Ciaran, and if I was a farmer with a field full of freshly planted crops I’d despair.

“I’ve had years when my yields have been 50% down, or 90% down, and that’s entirely due to climate change,” says Stanley. “It started happening in 2018, I’d been farming for 15 years, my parents, grandparents, all farmers, and the weather was broadly predictable in temperate, lovely Britain. Now the weather is nuts. It’s completely off the scale. And that’s all the time. It used to just be each season was nuts, then it was each month is nuts. Now we’re breaking new weather-related records every single month.”

Stanley is a livestock and arable farmer (and author). He’s also part of the Allerton Project, a 320 hectare demonstration farm in Leicestershire, which aims to make farming more resilient. It needs it.

“We rely so incredibly closely on the ability to get into our fields at certain times of the year to cultivate the land to plant the crops,” he says. “And you can’t do those things when it’s too wet or too dry. It’s not just that it’s more difficult or more expensive, you cannot do them. You just can’t get the crops planted. You can’t do it. Farms are slaughtering cattle because they don’t have enough food to feed them. The biggest

challenge we face as UK farmers right now is climate change.”

Not Brexit? Like the overall country, farmers were split over whether to Leave or Remain in 2016. But by 2021 NFU president Minette Batters was describing the situation with Brexit as a “betrayal”, that farmers were being used as “pawns” in negotiations, and that successive Conservative politicians had broken “promises” around existing protections. It sounds tiresomely familiar.

Now farmers fear with the US and Canada hovering, trade deals like those proposed with Australia are the thin end of the wedge. The fear is that domestic farmers will suffer as they are forced to compete with cheaper imports produced to lower safety and welfare standards.

Yet Brexit, with all the trouble it has caused, and will continue to cause, has nothing on the problems delivered by climate change, according to Stanley. “Of course if you’re a dairy farmer then TB is going to be the worst thing for your business, or maybe you’re a fruit farm that can’t get labour.

But I think for the industry as a whole it’s going to be climate change,” he says. “If you lose your entire crop that’s a problem, and that’s entirely down to climate change, or increasingly extreme weather patterns. So yes, Brexit is huge, along with about half a dozen other things, which unfortunately are all happening at the same time along with climate change. We had that incredibly hot

B I G I N T E RV I E W: R EG E N E R AT I O N

2018 and then an incredibly wet winter. And it’s just been the same every single year since then.

“Some seasons are slightly worse than others but every year seems to be the same, extreme in one form or another. It’s not what you expect from Britain, we are being as badly impacted as many parts of the world where you expect these things, but now it’s happening to us as well.”

The question then, is how can we reduce the impact of climate change, and build resilience into farming systems?

“Climate change has had the biggest impact on our profitability, but also our ability to produce food sustainably,” he says. “There have been a lot of challenges facing the sector in the last five or ten years, Brexit has been significant and many sub challenges arose from that, but it’s the extreme weather that’s had the greatest impact by far on my bottom line, and my ability to produce food in the sustainable way I want to. And that extreme weather is only predicted to get worse in the next few years. So as a farmer I need to work out how I can build a more resilient food system on my farm to meet that challenge.”

Hormones

UK agriculture plays an essential role in our supply chain, but a familiar criticism is that the government is not as supportive as it

could be of British farmers, which threatens the sustainability of the industry itself. A recent row over hormone-injected beef at the Conservative party conference did nothing to change that perception. And a question about whether enough attention is paid to promoting British farming products opens the floodgates.

“No. Absolutely not. The organisations which actively promote British food tend to be voluntary organisations or industry bodies, but in reality the British farming industr y has been relatively lazy in promoting itself to the public.

“Farmers are often reluctant to see their money spent on marketing, because they consider it ’s obvious that people should eat British, right? So farmers, to an extent, have not helped themselves.

W h a t p e r ce n ta g e of t h e i r a n n u a l turnover do Coca Cola or McDonald’s put into marketing? And everyone knows those products.

“The reality is if you polled the British public they would say they support British food, and they support British farming, because they want the high standards, and they want the high quality. But when it comes to doing the actual shop they are motivated by price. So that is a significant problem.

“You know, we only produce 60% of the food in the UK that we eat, we import 40% of our food and that is declining every year.

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Stanley was joined at the Sustainable Food Forum by Anglo American to discuss regenerative farming

“That is something we do need to address, but the government is not particularly interested in promoting British food and farming. It ’s something I believe the government only pays lip service to, which is a great shame because British agriculture has the solutions to many of the problems that we face as a society.”

A fundamental mistake

Why does he think the government is just paying lip service to this situation?

“I think the government sees food as a private sector concern. And it’s not just this government, previous governments thought exactly the same thing - that it is the role of the free market to provide food. And that I think is a fundamental mistake.

“When you’re talking about things as important as food security, food quality and sustainability in the food system, we know that the free market is not the best mechanism to provide those things.

And I think there should be a rethinking in government of how we approach our domestic food system.

Stanley called on farmers to adopt regenerative practices, and the government to support their efforts

B I G I N T E RV I E W: R EG E N E R AT I O N All of a sudden we’re concerned about energy security, but you’re going to run into exactly the same problem if the lights go out as if the food runs out. And this is something that we can’t just leave to the supermarkets, which is currently the situation that we’re facing.”

A post-Brexit shake up to the subsidies paid to farmers also means that “money that we were receiving to underpin our ability to farm and stay in business has been removed.

“So when it comes to food production this country is no longer subsidised, we no longer have a financial underpinning for our cheap system.

“We can’t increase the price of the food that we produce because essentially farmers are price takers. The retail sector obviously has a stranglehold over those prices. So we are looking at a situation where agriculture is going to be fundamentally unprofitable. And the alternatives that government is now funding are not going to be bringing in enough money to support agriculture. So that’s the fundamental problem that farmers across England are now facing.”

area of government policy where it seems the media is inherently hostile and wanting to find the problems. When it comes to the environment and food, it just gets swallowed hook, line and sinker.”

Revolution

Asked about Defra secretary of state Thérèse Coffey, Stanley politely suggests some consistency at Defra might be nice.

Two days before this article is published, a headline-grabbing reshuffle sees Coffey resign to be replaced by Steve Barclay.

Certainly farming is not the only industry to have a legitimate wish for more stability trickling from the government.

But, surely, in the wide world of farming, there must be some positives to talk about?

“Well, in a way, it’s certainly one of the most exciting periods in in agricultural history,” he says. “We are moving towards a fourth great agricultural revolution, in terms of the sustainability of the food that we’re producing.

“Some of the technology we now have in the 21st century, and how we can apply that to sustainable food production, is absolutely thrilling.

“Britain has the potential to be a world leader in sustainable agriculture.

And yet, unless we get the support of government, the wider food supply chain, and of consumers, that will not happen. “ We will diminish as an industr y.

Agriculture has the potential to provide sustainable, net-zero, climate friendly food, and that is a real possibility.

“At the same time we have the potential to deliver on biodiversity, to deliver on air, and water quality, and other natural capital. We just need the support in order to achieve it.”

Britain has the potential to be a world leader in sustainable agriculture.

Critique

Stanley is also disturbed by the way the media reports on the various pressurised situations facing farming.

“The media understanding of where we are is atrocious. The media is hugely challenging of the government on pretty much every area of policy, but when it comes to Defra, the environmental policy, or food and farming, bizarrely the media just follows the government’s line.

“There just isn’t the critique of the policy that you would get in other in any other

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Wealthy countries have exploited the waters of those in the global south to the point of no return, depriving local communities of vital food sources. Elsewhere, indigenous peoples lose access to ancestral fishing grounds...

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Out to Sea

by Juliane Caillouette Noble

It’s beautiful and it’s bountiful. But the food industry must farm the sea in a way that protects and revitalises the oceans, writes the head of the Sustainable Restaurant Association

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e stand at a threshold when it comes to biodiversity loss. The number of species is declining faster than at any other point in human history. If habitat loss and the climate crisis continue unabated, according to some estimates nearly 40% of all species will face extinction by the end of the century.

To prevent this we need change across our global food systems. It’s a mammoth task, and one that should be made a priority when COP28 begins at the end of this month. This change will have to be both driven and accommodated by a shift in our diets. And our oceans cannot be left behind in this.

Protecting marine biodiversity is essential if we are to achieve g l o b a l s u s ta i n a b l e development goals and for future food security.

The MCS says 90% of global fish stocks are either fully or overexploited by human fishing, compounded by the effects of climate change, pollution and invasive species.

Shifting our sourcing strategies to protect and revitalise our oceans and their occupants is critical. Many fishing practices have devastating impacts on the seabed and marine habitats, while also over-exploiting marine populations. Methods like longlining and gillnets also lead to the incidental deaths of thousands of other animals each year, including dolphins, porpoises, turtles and sea birds.

Human rights issues are also of grave concern. Wealthy countries have exploited the waters of those in the global south to the point of no return, depriving local communities of vital food sources. Elsewhere, indigenous peoples lose access to ancestral fishing grounds. In October this year, The New Yorker revealed how the vast majority of America’s seafood comes from a colossal fleet of Chinese vessels.

On board, human rights abuses are rampant, with many workers essentially prisoners – just one shocking example of why it’s critical to maintain visibility across the supply chain.

When it comes to the seafood on our plates, there has long been a disconnect.

Consumers simply don’t have enough information about where fish comes from, and don’t have an understanding of the industry’s problems. Seafood is marketed as a healthy alternative to meat, and indeed this can be true – but there is a missing link when it comes to environmental impact.

The average consumer likely knows the difference between a conventionally-reared chicken and an organic one, and is aware that ve g etarian food is more climate-friendly than meat-heavy diets, but has little frame of reference when it comes to prawns or pollock.

While we can all contribute to a better future through our individual food choices, the hospitality industry has the chance to play a powerful role.

An omnipresent link between producers and consumers, restaurants can help to translate theory into practice: driving demand for sustainable practices through procurement policies, while informing and steering consumer choices. Restaurants can act as culinary guiding lights leading customers towards climate-friendly dining, redefining how we eat today to ensure a better tomorrow.

The appetite is there. Choosing seafood based on sustainability has risen in importance for consumers since 2018. In late 2022, research showed that 65% of global consumers believe to protect the ocean, we must consume only fish and shellfish from sustainable sources – and some 56% are willing to pay more for it, says the MSC. Now is the moment when we must redef ine our relationship with our

We must redefine our relationship with our blue planet.

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56% of consumers around the world say they would happily pay more for fish and shellfish that were sustainably sourced

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S U S TA I N A B L E FO O D D I G E S T VO L 2 blue planet. Through careful sourcing, restaurants can safeguard and appreciate marine biodiversity, protect endangered species and support local communities. This approach also helps us pay more respect to seafood, a resource long undervalued and over-exploited.

Sourcing sustainably means buying from fisheries that only catch from healthy stocks, are strategically managed so that stocks can continue to flourish in the long term, avoid destructive fishing methods, minimise their impact on other species and the wider ecosystem, and ensure that human rights are upheld throughout.

In practice, it’s best to look for fisheries and suppliers that have a recognised, science-based certification, such as MSC’s blue label, or look for green-rated options in the MCS Good Fish Guide.

Reducing or removing the ‘Big Five’ (cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns) from your menu is a great place to start. Look for sustainable alternatives (for example, responsibly farmed bivalves like mussels can actually be beneficial to the waters around them) and enjoy the creativity brought by experimenting with more diverse marine ingredients. Another option is to serve up invasive, non-native species that destroy local ecosystems. One example is the Chinese mitten crab, celebrated in China as a seasonal delicacy and now seen in UK waters. Putting these tasty crabs on your menu could be a climate-positive avenue worth exploring.

Examining your supply chain is key. Do you have visibility over the entire network?

Do you really know where and how each item is caught? Are there blind spots where you can’t be sure everyone is being treated well and paid fairly? Have a conversation with suppliers about your goals for sustainable sourcing, many wholesalers will be able to provide information and suggest alternatives.

This can also help drive change through their own supply chains, having a wider impact.

It matters how we treat seafood once it’s in our kitchens, too. Implementing a zero-waste, fin-to-gill approach means honouring the fish we’ve bought, making sure every part is used in creative ways and

Restaurants and wholesalers can play a crucial role in pushing sustainable seafood onto menus

usually saving money in the process. What this looks like will depend on your kitchen, cuisine, customer base and resources, it could be as simple as making stock from discarded shells, or as innovative as what Ángel León is doing at Aponiente.

Finally, spread the word. It’s important for your employees to understand what sustainability means when it comes to seafood, and why it’s a priority. This helps the kitchen team to take pride in where their ingredients come from and gives frontof-house staff the language they need in interacting with customers.

Make sure sourcing policies are clearly explained on your website and social media, and include the provenance of your fish dishes on your menu itself. The foodservice sector wields enormous power. It’s time to use it for the good of our oceans. It’s not too late. But it soon will be.

NAVIGATING EU DEFORESTATION REGULATION Ascot 15 April Register to Attend

Discover the solutions your business needs to put into place by the end of 2024

Key benefits for you attending include Learn from experts and discover the solutions your business needs to put into place Coming away with practical advice and guidance to help your business meet the regulatory requirement Hear from regulatory experts and industry advisors Explore topical issues including 'what does ‘deforestation-free’ mean in practice' and 'what are the top priorities for businesses to address in 2024'

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Taking a Bite Out of Plastic Waste

by Laura Clews Managing associate at Mathys & Squire

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lastic was the perfect choice for food and drink packaging before concerns around the disposal of this non-biodegradable material led to a search for viable alternatives.

Despite this, food and drink packaging still formed 83% of UK household plastic waste in 2022, and only an estimated 44% of the 2.5 million metric tons of plastic waste generated in 2021 was recycled.

The remainder is typically sent to incinerators and controlled landfills, which does not provide a long-term solution for plastic waste.

So in recent years, innovative packaging has been developed to deliver what manufacturers need in terms of robustness and food safety, and what consumers have come to expect, which is eco-friendly

packaging which can degrade without releasing toxins.

A recent inventive eco-trend is for the packaging to be totally edible, so a product can be eaten with no waste at all.

The concept of edible packaging and containers is not especially new – Italo Marchiony’s patent for a mould for ice cream cups was granted in 1903.

Many of the latest developments in edible packaging use nutritious seaweed. At the London Marathon, runners were offered “Oohho” by Notpla, edible seaweed pouches filled with a sports drink, in a bid to replace 200,000 single use plastic bottles.

The capsules release their liquid when bitten, and they will naturally break down within four to six weeks if discarded instead of being swallowed along with the liquid.

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Notpla uses a cellulose polymer from seaweed which is used to create an edible pocket which is filled with liquid, then sealed

Edible Packaging For a more precise explanation, Notpla’s patent application (GB 2,612,816) teaches that the edible membranes are produced by extracting a cellulose polymer from seaweed which is then pumped through a die to create two ribbons or films. The desired liquid is then injected between the two ribbons/films which are subsequently sealed. Evoware have also utilised seaweed to produce edible packaging, creating containers, straws, cutlery, and even edible Ello Jello cups. These are formed by hydrating seaweed to create a slurry which is then cast and dried in the required form (WO 2014/108887).

As an alternative approach to edible containers, Italian designer Enrique Luis Sardi produced a new coffee cup for Lavazza in 2003. The design comprised a pastry dough molded into the form of a cup and a patented icing sugar coating on the inner surface, creating a waterproof barrier whilst also sweetening the coffee it contained.

The cookie cup can be consumed after use, which could eliminate some of the 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups used each year in

the UK, and provide a delightful snack.

For most adults, coffee is not simply a drink choice, but an essential for day-today life. In the UK, 500,000 tonnes of used coffee grounds are produced every year, most of which ends up on landfill sites.

Fortunately, Kaffeeform, has found a way to repurpose this waste, creating durable (if not edible) cups formed from recycled coffee grounds and other plant-based resources hardened with biopolymers.

Manufacturers must ensure that packaging material has sufficient strength to contain and protect the product through its transport, storage and distribution. In the food and drink industry it’s imperative that materials do not leach any undesirable chemicals into or onto the product.

Additionally, packaging must provide a suitable water vapour transmission rate and oxygen permeability coefficient, as moisture and oxygen will affect shelf life.

Producing cost-effective packaging is also important as most consumers are only willing to pay a small premium for environmentally friendly products.

P R OT EC T YO U R T EC H

Cellulose is a renewable polymer in high demand

PHAs are very versatile and an increasingly popular alternative

Thermoplastic Cellulose

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)

Some companies have turned to plant power to create environmentally friendly packaging materials similar to plastics, including VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, who have developed a thermoplastic cellulose material.

As the most abundant renewable organic polymer, the use of cellulose as a packaging material is highly desirable.

However, it cannot be thermally processed and is virtually insoluble in traditional solvents. In order to impart thermoplastic properties, modification of cellulose is required. In the patent application filed by VTT (WO 2016/193542), the physical and chemical properties of a thermoplastic cellulose material are achieved by decreasing the molar mass of raw cellulose using a hydrolysis process and a long chain fatty acid modification. The material formed can reportedly be moulded to a desired shape using heat and processed using traditional plastic treatment processes. These materials are reported to be mechanically strong, provide excellent WVTR properties, and good heat-sealability.

PHAs are a class of bio-derived, biodegradable polymers which have tuneable properties ranging from rigid-brittle to rubber. They are compostable thermoplastics, and include natural polyesters produced by bacterial fermentation of sugar, glucose, or vegetable oil feedstock.

The versatility of PHAs makes them a suitable candidate for a wide range of applications, providing a viable alternative to fossil fuel-derived plastics. Cambridge Consultants have developed a range of food and drink containers and utensils formed from PHAs. The global biodegradable packaging market reached over $440 billion in 2021 and is expected to continue to increase. In addition, the global consumable packaging market is on track to reach $1.10 billion in 2023.

As the development of more environmentally friendly packaging materials has the potential to create significant revenue for manufacturers, companies at the forefront of this research should be looking to protect their intellectual property in advance of any product launch. Just like Italo Marchiony.

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Deliver your potential at Moy Park In partnership with Moy Park

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oy Park is best known for supplying branded and own-label fresh and value-added poultry products to retailers and foodservice providers across the UK, Ireland, and Europe.

Headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, the company has 12 manufacturing sites across England, Northern Ireland, France and the Netherlands, working with 10,000 team members plus 700 farmers across the UK. While Moy Park is renowned for fresh, locally sourced poultry, it also produces beef products, vegetarian products and desserts.

The company supplies branded and own label chicken products to well-known supermarket chains and food service providers.

You make the difference

Currently celebrating its 80th year, Moy Park is a company with a rich agricultural heritage. Over those 80 years the company has grown from a small farming business into a £1.9 billion turnover business and today, is one of Europe’s leading food companies.

Aislinn Joyce, Recruitment Lead at Moy Park puts the company’s success down to its fantastic people who embrace its values.

“Moy Park is a people-focused business, where every team member knows ‘you make the difference’”, Aislinn said.

“Our vision is to become the best and most respected company in our industry, creating the opportunity of a better future for all our team members. We do that by focusing on our core values and embedding an inclusive and diverse culture. We want our people to thrive, grow and to make a difference!”

Moy Park prides itself in the early career pathways it offers people who want to

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“You could start with a role in operations and end up working in the culture and talent team”

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develop their skills and build a career in the food industry.

With schemes including industrial placements, apprenticeships, graduate schemes as well as direct roles, Aislinn says there are multiple ways to realise your potential in the industry. “Whatever your interest or area of expertise, you will find an exciting career at Moy Park,” Aislinn said.

“There has never been a better time to explore a career in food manufacturing. The food industry is incredibly innovative with a diverse range of opportunities and careers.

Moy Park is proud to offer fantastic entry routes into the business which promotes individuals to grow their knowledge, skills and values to progress their careers.”

Building a career at Moy Park Moy Park currently has a variety of opportunities available across the business including: Agriculture, Commercial, Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Operations, Process Development, Supply Chain, Technical and Transport.

For anyone open to joining Moy Park, Aislinn points out there are opportunities available across all functions of the business.

“You could start with a placement role in operations and you could choose to end up working in the culture and talent team. It’s great to experience all the different functions of the business and it really gives you a full overview of how everything works – one of the advantages of a large dynamic company.

“A role in marketing could also include touring the factory floor and seeing how it operates. It’s important for any member of the team to see how different parts of the business function and it could ultimately help inform their own role. You can see the whole process from beginning to end, why you do some things, why you don’t do others.”

She says for anyone “keen to learn and work” there are “so many opportunities for progression. The people are amazing, and you’ll be working with a really supportive team.

There is also an excellent mentoring scheme in place, which is great for the development of the overall business.”

As well as placements there are also apprenticeship roles available, and they are not just for school leavers, or focused on a single skill. They also deliver an industry recognised qualification.

“Apprenticeships are not age-dependent, you can be an apprentice at any age with Moy Park across operations, engineering or food safety & quality,” says Aislinn. “It’s about learning while working, with a blend of on-the-job training and classroom learning.

Every programme is slightly different, but it’s usually four days on-site and one day in the classroom.”

As for graduate roles, they specialise in a specific function, but flexibility remains a big draw. Graduates complete a minimum of four different placements during a 2 – 3 year programme and are given projects to lead whilst learning the fundamentals of the industry.

Benefits

Whether you are considering further education or taking the first step into a sustainable career, Moy Park offers competitive salaries and rates of pay, professional development and mentorship, health and wellbeing support, a rewards and recognition programme and much more.

As Aislinn explains, building the best company isn’t just about state-of-the-art facilities, but having the best people and giving them the opportunity to shine.

“We are committed to helping our people harness their potential and develop their careers and we ensure we provide fantastic benefits and support so our team members are rewarded and motivated at every level.”

Make your mark with Moy Park To find out about the diverse range of careers and vacancies available at Moy Park, visit: moypark.com/careers

SUSTAINABLE SOURCING Ascot 16-17 April

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Want to experience the benefits of regenerative agriculture and nature-positive food design?

Register your earlybird pass from just £250+VAT at https://foodmatterslive.com/sustainable-sourcing/#attend

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A dynamic career in food and drink

In partnership with Kepak

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hat inspired the creation of the Kepak graduate scheme?

Noel Keating, who founded Kepak, was a great believer in giving people opportunities to start and develop their careers, and it was this belief that inspired the start of the Kepak graduate programme over 30 years ago. It has been through several redesigns over the years, adding improvements and making changes to reflect business needs. These changes were always underpinned by Kepak’s values and the ultimate aim of the graduate programme, which is our desire to develop our business leaders of the future.

We want to provide talented individuals with opportunities to kickstart their careers in the food and drink industry with Kepak.

How does your graduate scheme differ to other companies in the food and drink sector?

Our Graduates start to be immersed in the Kepak company and culture from day one, and with so many of our senior leaders having

come through our Graduate programme, our Graduates get to spend time with these leaders regularly to learn from them.

We give our Graduates the opportunity to work in various functions, through different length rotations, whish allows them to learn every aspect of our business, to better equip themselves as they progress their careers.

We have a learning plan to support their development in Year 1, and then they complete an accredited qualification in Year 2.

What day-to-day experiences can graduates expect during their time in the program?

The exact type and length of the rotations depends on which programme a graduate joins, but regardless of which one, they can all expect a dynamic and supportive work environment, where they will be given real responsibilities. They will also get the opportunity to participate in projects to support their learning and development.

We underpin the rotations and training plan with a in depth learner journey for

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“Noel Keating, who founded Kepak, was a great believer in giving people opportunities to start and develop their careers...”

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each graduate.

We like our Graduates to have ownership of their development, so we detail what they will learn over the 2 years programme so they can help to drive that.

What can graduates expect after the scheme?

Kepak sees the Graduate programme as the first two years of someone’s career with us, so we are keen that peoples development continues.

We start thinking about the end of the programme before we even advertise our roles.

We ask the sites to consider plans for their Graduates into years 3, 4 & 5, things can change along the way, but we want to think long term about opportunities for people.

We will b e launching a new Graduate Alumni programme soon, that will consider skill & personal development, as well as networking opportunities to support continued development.

trend for the wider industry.

How about sustainable and ethical practices in the food and drink industry?

We at Kepak believe that sustainability should not be a side-line effort. It should be part of everything we do, the way that everyone does their job every day.

As a business, we commit to working with our industry peers to ensure we minimise our impact on the environment, whilst safeguarding animal welfare and producer live li h o o d s . We were a founder member of Origin Green back in 2012, and have been a Gold member since 2021.

Origin Green i s a vo l u n ta r y programme, led

by Bord Bia, that brings together our food industry with the common goal of sustainable food production.

We at Kepak believe that sustainability should not be a side-line effort.

It should be part of everything we do.

How does your company emphasize diversity and inclusion within your graduate scheme and the broader workforce?

With our Graduate programme, we are always looking at how we engage & attract candidates, is our messaging right.

How do we do recruitment, shortlisting and assessments, so that we remove any blockers for candidates or opportunities for bias to influence decisions.

Our gender balance has improved each year, this year we recruited more female graduates than male for the first time.

In the last 5 years the split is 49.5% Female to 50.5% Male, which bucks the

How does your company contribute to industry trends and innovations, and how do graduates play a role in this?

Kepak has 2 divisions within the business.

Our Red Meat division has brands such as Celtic Beef, McIntosh Donald, Watergrass Hill, Black Angus, Hereford Beef. And the Foods Division, which incorporates Big Al’s & Rustlers.

Being a leading meat business, innovation is key to helping us stay competitive, we stay connected to buyers shopping habits, and offer products that meet the wants of customers.

This is reflected in Kepak regularly winning awards for its new products at industry events.

What sets your company apart in terms of fostering career growth and

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Kepak’s latest crop of graduates will get a mentor for the duration of the programme to help them achieve their goals

advancement for graduates?

We truly believe in investing in our Graduates, to help equip them with the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed on their programme and progress their careers beyond that. We have an in-depth training plan in Year 1 that covers personal skills such as Communication, Presentation, Resilience as well as more practical things like Excel and Productivity. We also have workshops on finance, the agri-food industry and sustainability. We deliver these whilst also touring each of the sites and having team building events. We want to immerse Graduates in how and where the business operates, as well as delivering training.

Could you describe the mentoring and support system in place for graduates within your organization?

Starting with a new business for anyone can be a daunting task, but it can be even more so for a Graduate, they can put too much pressure on themselves just by being part of the Graduate programme. We try to remove as much of this pressure as possible at each

stage of their programme, during their 2 day induction, we have functional leads delivering the introduction to the business, the majority of which are Graduates, so they can share their experience and progression.

Each Graduate gets a buddy when they get to site to help them navigate around and answer any questions. They will also get a Mentor for the duration of their programme, to help them with their development and achieving their learner journey.

Are there opportunities for graduates to work on exciting and impactful projects during their time in the program?

Kepak always has projects happening in every site and division, from operational, engineering, marketing etc. We like to get our graduates involved in these for a couple of reasons, one it is a great way for them to get to know different people and build their network, as well as getting to know our business. Another reason is that it is great to give a Graduate some responsibility to deliver objectives, as well as getting fresh insight into how we operate.

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About us Food Matters Live holds events focused on sustainability, innovation and nutrition.

It also releases digital publications and podcasts. After a successful first Sustainable Food Forum in London, Food Matters Live is focusing on two of the most pressing sustainable issues affecting food and drink, sustainable sourcing and the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation. Everything you need to know is at www.foodmatterslive.com.

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Managing director Briony Mansell-Lewis briony.mansell-lewis@foodmatterslive.com Commercial enquiries Caroline Roberts caroline.roberts@foodmatterslive.com Events enquiries Lydia Stilwell lydia.stilwell@foodmatterslive.com Editor James Halliwell james.halliwell@foodmatterslive.com Designer Julia Sabiniarz contact@juliasabiniarz.com Illustrator Rebecca Corcoran rebecca.corcoran@foodmatterslive.com