2Sustain

What is the environmental impact of pre-packaged sandwiches and baked goods? Are there ways businesses can work towards their sustainability goals –and cut costs –by changing the way these items are prepared, packaged and stored?

Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), an organization that works in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to help businesses reduce waste and develop sustainable products, wants answers to questions like these, and so it has launched a study into the amount of waste in the UK retail supply chain created by pre-prepared food.

The landmark study will include four representative products –sandwiches, pizza, quiches, and ready-made meals –and it aims to:

• Calculate the associated carbon emissions and economic impact of these pre-prepared foods

• Identify the amount of water used and disposed of during the manufacture of these products

• Create “resource maps” to highlight waste generated at key stages in the chilled and frozen supply chains

Ultimately, WRAP wants to develop best practice guidance regarding storage, handling and packaging so that companies in the pre-prepared food categories can benchmark themselves and maximize opportunities for reducing environmental impacts and cutting costs.

The maps will also include WRAP data on levels of packaging and food waste from households, so that a whole chain can be seen and the ‘hot spots’ identified.

“Identifying where waste is generated, and the reasons why, will help the development of effective solutions which are tailored to these products, with learnings then applied across the category,” says Charlotte Henderson, Retail Supply Chain Programme Manager at WRAP. “By sharing these with the sector, we aim to help companies at all stages of the supply chain access these commercial and environmental benefits.”

Businesses interested in getting involved with the project should email resourcemaps@wrap.org.uk.