Walk the Chain Workshop with Simplot Australia

Simplot Australia, founding Signatories to the Australian Food Pact and leaders in food waste action, share their insights and learnings following their site visits and Walk the Chain workshop with the Australian Food Pact.

Can you tell us about your organisation?

In Australia, Simplot is an agricultural and food manufacturing business that creates food that Australians and New Zealanders love. We are home to some of Australia’s most loved and trusted retail and foodservice brands including Birds Eye, Edgell, John West and Leggo’s. We are one of Australia’s largest suppliers of foodservice products, and we supply quick service restaurants, cafes, restaurants, stadiums, hospitals, aged care facilities and many other venues.

We were the first company to sign up to the Australian Food Pact in October 2021 and are focused on sustainably bringing Earth’s resources to life, enabling us to deliver on our company purpose of Contributing to Feeding Our World. The Australian Food Pact’s food waste reduction goals tie closely and further support our own waste reduction efforts.

Can you tell us about the Walk the Chain workshop and the food waste challenges or opportunities you hoped it would help address?

As part of submitting our food waste baseline in August 2022 as a member of the Australian Food Pact, we identified there were some data gaps in how we categorise our food waste. Our organisation’s commitment to zero waste to landfill by 2030 meant many processes were already in place to divert food waste from landfill.

However, we saw an opportunity to better understand the causes of food waste in more detail. We identified there was potential to keep more food at higher-value end destinations through prevention, transformation and donation.

What was involved in the Walk the Chain workshop?

Throughout 2022, we undertook site food waste profiling exercises led by SFWA to identify the causes of food waste and held a Walk the Chain workshop facilitated by SFWA.

Participants in the workshop included Simplot’s cross-functional Food Waste Working Group with representatives from our Agricultural Services, Value Improvement, Innovation & Growth, Logistics and Warehousing, and Marketing teams. In the workshop, the team focused on one crop, the frozen pea.

We mapped out the hotspots where food waste occurs along the entire value chain from field through to retailer distribution centres. The outcome of the workshop produced many great ideas, but we decided to prioritise prevention initiatives.

What solutions were identified in the Walk the Chain workshop and how are you implementing these in your operations?

There were many solutions identified for the pea waste through the Walk the Chain workshop that were then prioritised through an assessment of the ease of implementation and ultimate impact. This provided us with an actionable food waste reduction plan specific to our pea supply chain.

An opportunity identified was making improvements to the optical sorter that created a wider specification allowance for the peas without compromising quality. These recommendations to keep more high-quality produce on the line were presented and supported by management, with the recalibrations implemented immediately, along with updated staff processes and training. Other longer-term opportunities included investigation into technology to fast-track alerts for increased rejections, and changes in waste collection processes to separate edible from inedible waste to allow for future upcycling considerations.

Food waste measurement and annual reporting for the Australian Food Pact will help us quantify our food waste reduction initiatives and show the progressive impact across the farm to retail distribution.

What have been the positive impacts from the workshop for your business?

The workshop was a powerful engagement exercise as it was a deep dive into one crop and, for the first time, looking right across the supply chain from crop planning to customer distribution centre. This scope meant that we could engage experts from across our business who may not have previously looked at their role through a food waste lens.

With so many diverse views and process steps represented, we were able to understand how the impact of each process and the associated decisions made created the food waste, which then allowed us to identify many opportunities and solutions to prevent food waste.

It brings great satisfaction to see more of the carefully grown, harvested and processed products we make in stores and on the plates of Australians. The economic benefits for business are clear, along with the environmental benefits from ensuring resources, land, water and fuel result in food for more people, along with the work truly aligning with our company purpose.

The learnings from the Walk the Chain workshop and frozen peas are such that we can also apply them to other crops in the Simplot Australia product range and will further help to reduce food waste across our organisation.

For others looking to get started or expand their action on food waste, what have you learnt from this process and what advice would you share?

Our advice to others when getting started on their food waste journey is to leverage the useful resources around you. This includes the industry connections to likeminded businesses, expertise and tools from End Food Waste Australia.

No one organisation or entity can solve the enormous challenge of Australia’s food waste problem by themselves. It will take consistent, purposeful collaboration with businesses, government, food rescue organisations and consumers. As such, there are food waste initiatives that can begin right away such as optimising operations and others that require longer timeframes for planning, investment and collaboration. I also encourage organisations to get involved and connect with the Australian Food Pact, and participate in the Pact network, Sector Action Plans and Working Groups.