Having read in FPJ recently that we throw away 1.3 billion tonnes of food annually, my thoughts turned to how the requirements for perfect produce might contribute towards this waste.
How often are shipments rejected as they fail to meet commercially driven quality standards? Once diverted from the intended market, produce is sent to another market where it might sit unsold until it is eventually sent to landfill. I have lost count of the times I’ve seen pallets of perfect fruit wasted, simply because they were delivered too ripe for a marketing programme that already had ripe fruit.
We have all seen consignments which ‘will do’, rather than being genuinely excellent, and have to be moved and turned into profit one way or another. I find myself torn on those occasions, as clearly a specification has to be met, but provided that is the case, then all parties must agree that the product is acceptable. In light of the level of food waste through the supply chain, I hate to think of yet more waste created simply to satisfy our demands for perfection in an inherently variable product. It would be nice to see some focus from those in positions of influence to differentiate between condition, quality and natural variation. It might allow us greater scope to market imperfectly shaped products, a trend which we now see fairly frequently in the foodservice arena.
It is not just on the wider scale that commerce and quality collide to create waste. It is interesting to work with a mixed group within an organisation, whose perspectives when it comes to commercial considerations versus quality management will vary. I had such a conversation last week, discussing how that business picked orders of produce within a depot of mixed foodstuffs. Questions on how handling might affect quality were met with resistance by those with operational costs to consider, and this is a regular theme. How often do we see fresh produce damaged, simply because commercial and cost requirements put a premium on speed rather than the care of handling? I hate, for example, to see boxes of fresh produce thrown around a depot rather than placed, but when those doing the handling are rewarded bonuses for speed it will happen.
I would argue that a sensible approach to quality would bring about a reduction in wastage. Likewise, commerce and quality are sometimes uneasy bedfellows on both the large scale and in an individual approach. However, does that not give us more scope to change? After all, every one of those 1.3bn tonnes of food started off with value, and a management-supported approach to maintaining quality, which is given the time and focus to filter through the whole team, will help to maintain that quality and value. -
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