Bakery industry starts monitoring food waste

Among the members of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Bakkerij (NVB) (Netherlands Bakery Association) there is a great willingness to combat food wastage. Bread is one of the most wasted food products in the Netherlands. The NVB has therefore started (self) monitoring. The results of the first tests were presented to the members and several companies subsequently signed up to participate in self-monitoring. The companies are using a monitoring format that was developed by Wageningen University & Research and Samen Tegen Voedselververspilling (Together Against Food Waste) in a pilot project with three bakeries.

Monitoring in three subsectors

The NVB has been a stakeholder of Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling since the beginning of this year and immediately started setting up the monitoring. Initially, three companies were willing to cooperate in this project. BACU Uden provided a (monitoring) format for pastry bakeries, Amarant Bakkers supplied data for the perishable bakeries and PréPain Oldenzaal took care of the frozen/soft-food bread segment. These three types of bakeries cover the entire production spectrum of the industrial bakery sector. Wageningen University & Research and Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling developed monitoring formats from this pilot so that other companies in this sector can also set up (self) monitoring.

Figures are important

At the end of June, Toine Timmermans of Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling presented the results of this first monitoring exercise at the General Members' Meeting. The NVB members reacted very positively to this. The awareness that accurate figures in relation to wastage are needed to enrich the image of bread was leading.  

Prospects and measures

This effort by the bakeries should lead to a nice benchmark with regard to food and production wastage in the three subsectors of the industrial bakery sector. This benchmark is expected to provide sufficient substantive information to take measures to further reduce wastage and to share best practices. At the General Meeting of Members in November, the results of the monitoring will be shared with the members of the NVB.

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