REDUCING WASTE AND REDISTRIBUTING NUTRITION

THE CHALLENGE

In Australia, over 2 million tonnes of food is wasted along the cold chain. Amongst other factors, poor supply chain efficiency, resilience and co-ordination drive this waste. Food supply chains across Queensland traverse large geographical areas and operate in a challenging climate. Particularly, supply chains to remote communities which span over almost 4,000km and can involve up to 20 touch points.

The distance and complexity of these supply chains contribute to waste and have flow-on impacts for industry, community nutrition and food security. Cold chains that supply nutritious food across Queensland are at particularly high risk for disruption. They contribute to the $3.8 billion loss of food waste annually. This project will see a multi-agency collaborative work together to identify the mechanisms to improve food security and reduce food waste and loss in Australia’s food chain by 160,000 tonnes by 2033.

OUR PLAN

This project will highlight areas of food and nutrition oversupply/waste and identify mechanisms to shift 500 tonnes of food/nutrition from over- to under-supplied Queensland communities. The outcomes will inform policy recommendations that have the potential to better support the 720,000 Queensland households impacted by food insecurity, particularly those in remote Queensland. Hence, maximising the impact of food donation groups and contributing to improved food security, health and wellbeing. Potential outcomes include savings of $10 million per year with improved logistics systems that could be scaled to target 5% of the $1.7 billion loss to food waste. The tool will address a long-held challenge for food security policy and decision making in Queensland by surfacing critical data and evidence for supply chain solutions. Unique in its ability to integrate food waste and nutrition data in supply chain mapping, the tool will be utilised to inform decision-making about supply chain solutions in Queensland, and beyond.