FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Food loss and waste reduction during processing

Hybrid Event, 26/05/2021

Processing and packaging can play a role in preserving foods, but losses can be caused by inadequate facilities or processing capacity for seasonal production gluts, technical malfunctions (wrong size or damaged packaging) or human error, lack of proper process management, excessive trimming to attain a certain aesthetic, and in addition to all these: insufficient economic incentive to prevent these losses (the solution is more expensive than the losses).

These lead to discarded food material during processing, and rejection of the final product due to non-compliance with specifications and standards and hence result in financial losses.

Therefore, food loss and waste prevention are one of the key priorities for food and drink manufacturers. Indeed, many companies integrate it in the quality management plan of their corporate objectives and overall sustainability strategy.

The main areas of opportunity to prevent and reduce food waste in this sector are improving processing practices, finding innovative packaging solutions, and promoting circularity by using by-products and left-over product material for human food.

This webinar will focus on secondary processing (product transformation) and packaging stages in the food value chain and the ways to reduce food loss and waste.

Join the discussion on 26 May, 10:00 – 12:15 CEST

Key speakers:

  • Thea Koning, Senior Global Corporate Affairs and Issue Manager, Foods and Refreshment, Unilever
  • Marta Perricone, Foods and Refreshment Supply Chain Manager Sustainability, Unilever
  • Vasiliy Fokin, Head of Sustainability, Russia & CIS, Danone, Russia
  • Christine Maziero, International Market Operations Director, BRF/Banvit, Turkey
  • Selma Seddik, Co-founder and Owner, InStock 

Panel discussion on packaging solution to reduce food waste

  • Angelika Christ, Industry Expert, former Secretary General of European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO)
  • Ulphard Thoden van Velzen, Senior Scientist Packaging Technology and Recycling, Wageningen University and Research 
  • Erik Mansson, CEO, Innoscentia 

Simultaneous interpretation in Russian and Turkish will be provided.