Preventing food from falling through the cracks

🇨🇦 Canada has a huge problem with food waste, with 58% of all food in the country going to waste each year, equivalent to the weight of 95 CN towers. Almost half of this waste occurs in processing and manufacturing. To address this issue, Second Harvest, Anthesis Provision and Enviro-Stewards launched a multi-year research project in 2021 with US$510,000 funding from the Walmart Foundation. The project aimed to support companies in the food processing and manufacturing sector to explore and address barriers to preventing and reducing food loss and waste, while recovering and redistributing surplus food.

🥦 A previous investment from the Walmart Foundation facilitated food loss prevention assessments at 50 food and beverage processing facilities across Canada. These assessments identified prevention measures that could avoid 9.3 million kg/yr of food loss while collectively saving the facilities $11.4 million/yr. Walmart Foundation’s follow-up investment enabled following up with each of the 50 original participants and providing technical assistance to 20 facilities that had not fully implemented the recommended conservation measures. The project has now ended, and it has prevented a total of 3,109,433 kg/yr of food loss and waste, and 100,295 kg/yr of surplus edible food is now being redirected to non-profit agencies feeding Canadians.

🌎 The project saw many successes, with companies such as Righteous Gelato and Nature’s Touch identifying potential annual savings of $132,609 and $824,000, respectively, and preventing significant greenhouse gas emissions. However, the project also encountered challenges, such as high infrastructure costs and staff turnover related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the project highlighted many of the challenges faced by companies looking to prevent waste, it also underscored the importance of cross-sector collaboration and alignment on a goal.

By Lori Nikkel


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