Call for manufacturers to fight consumer waste

Dr Wayne Martindale, senior research fellow at Sheffield Business School, wants to engage with the manufacturing industry to reduce consumer waste.

Although manufacturers have good resource efficiency at factories, Martindale said they also need to focus on making sure that consumers do not waste their products after purchase.  

“​I am constantly asking: what is the point of making a 100% resource efficient product if it cannot be used with the same efficiency by consumers when it leaves the manufacturing environment?”​ he said.  

Martindale, who is author of Global Food Security and Supply, has carried out research into sustainable outcomes alongside the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) and Iglo Food Group, the parent company of Birds Eye.  

This ground-breaking study revealed that frozen food generated 47% less food waste compared to ambient and chilled food eaten at home.    

‘Build in sustainability thinking’​ 

He said the discovery highlighted the relationship between manufacturing and consumer waste as well as “nudging us consumers” ​to think about using food more sustainably.  

“This is a surprisingly new principle in the mix for many experts, it asks manufacturers to build in sustainability thinking to the design of products so consumers use less energy, waste less and so on,” ​he said.  ​

Iglo Group’s ‘Forever Food Together’ programme aims to stamp out food waste by ensuring products are responsibly sourced and encouraging consumers to only eat what they need and freeze the rest. 

Martindale said: “This for me shows how manufacturers see responding to designing products for waste reduction and in this case frozen resource utilisation.”​    ​

‘Tapping the innovation capacity’​ 

As part of ‘Forever Food Together’, Birds Eye also launched an iFreeze campaign that persuaded people to freeze more food, create less waste and save money. 

The researcher suggested there was an opportunity to achieve zero domestic food waste in Europe, which would mean 35Mt more food could go elsewhere and help feed the earth’s growing population. 

But he said: “This can only be done be engaging with the manufacturing sector of our industry and tapping the innovation capacity within it.”​ ​

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has campaigned for the extension of product life through supply chain improvements and by resetting ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates.

It has also argued for changes in storage guidance to help reduce food waste.