Global taste and nutrition company Kerry has partnered with the Australian Food Pact, joining Australia’s biggest food businesses to tackle $36 billion food waste challenge.
As part of the agreement, Kerry will set targets to cut food waste in its operations in line with the international best practice set out in the Target Measure Act process. The company will also work with supply partners to reduce food loss and waste in its supply chains.
Kerry Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa president and CEO John Cahalane said supplying sustainable nutrition solutions was part of solving the food waste challenge.
“The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that 35 per cent of the food grown for human consumption in Australia is wasted, which equates to 7.6 million tonnes per annum. The food industry plays a crucial role in tackling this issue.
“As a leader in taste and nutrition solutions, Kerry’s goal is to work with our customers to reach over two billion people every day by 2030, helping consumers eat better, improve our local communities, reduce food waste and with it, environmental impact.
“We are committed to delivering the activities and initiatives included in our Food Waste Action Plan and look forward to working with Stop Food Waste Australia over the next three years,” Cahalane said.
Stop Food Waste Australia (SFWA) launched the Australian Food Pact in October 2021.
The Pact follows proven successful voluntary agreements that tackle food waste following the food waste hierarchy – preventing food waste in the first place, donating good food, and supporting food chain transformation and innovation.
Founding signatories included Simplot Australia, Woolworths Group, Goodman Fielder, Coles Group, Mars Australia, Mondelēz Australia, ARECO Pacific, and McCain Foods.
SFWA COO Mark Barthel welcomed Kerry to the Pact.
“We thank them for committing their time and resources to the bold and important goal of halving Australia’s food waste by 2030.
“We also look forward to working closely with Kerry Australia on collaborative and innovative approaches to reducing food waste and food insecurity, delivering its sustainability objectives and unlocking new environmental, economic and societal value for the organisation, the communities in which it operates and for Australian consumers,” Barthel said.
Cahalane said that as part of its commitment, Kerry will lead or support initiatives and goals including working with food rescue and relief organisations to make sure no food safe for human consumption goes to waste.
It would also increase the amount of safe, surplus food suitable for use as animal feed donated to farmers with a goal of increasing farmer donations by 50 per cent by proportion of surplus food, all by 28 Febrary 2025.
Food waste will also be considered in Kerry’s new product development process as it refreshes existing product lines or introduces new products to the market, he said.
In its operations, Kerry will quantify food waste using the World Resource Institute’s Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard and encourage major supply partners to do the same.
This includes an assessment of the volumes of food saved, lost or wasted in food donated, composting, energy from waste and landfill, among others, with the intent of turning surplus and wasted food into food recovery to benefit businesses and the community.
