Championing Food Waste Reduction — BEEF + LAMB NEW ZEALAND

Who amongst us is now grating their broccoli stalk into their coleslaw or steaming it along with the broccoli heads? If so, this is just one of the tips from Love Food Hate Waste, a campaign that gets consumers to think about their food waste and how to reduce it.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand Inc. have recently jumped on board to champion food waste reduction and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, 12.3, to half global food waste by 2030. We have joined WasteMINZ, a membership-based organisation which is a leading voice on waste, resource recovery and contaminated land sectors in New Zealand.

One way to reduce food waste at the end of the food chain, is to focus on behaviour change, and Love Food Hate Waste does this really well through their tips and recipe ideas for the public. Through our channels we intend to spread the word and echo their messaging. Reducing household meat and food waste will be one of our communication focuses, along with supporting food waste reduction in the hospitality sector, as well as research to gather meat waste data.

What we do know about Kiwis’ meat waste from a 2018 kerbside household bin audit, suggests beef waste sits 10th in the ‘Top 20 avoidable food types’. When grouped into categories, fruit and vegetables compromise 51% of food waste, with 21% of this being avoidable waste. Meat and fish make up 13% of food waste with just under half of this being avoidable. Non-avoidable waste is mostly bones and shellfish shells.

Although less meat is thrown out compared to other foods such as fruit, vegetables and bakery items, it does have the highest value. Based on the results of the 2018 audit, it is estimated that almost $200 million worth of meat and fish is thrown into household bins annually.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand have chosen to join the quest with many other organisation and food industry groups committed to the SDG 12.3 goal. As an industry body, from farm to fork, we don’t want to see any red meat wasted, along with all the other nourishing food our farmers across New Zealand produce. We want to see less beef and lamb going in the bin – instead, we want to see it nourish New Zealanders, save them money and do one small thing to address climate change.

During March we attended the inaugural New Zealand Food Waste Summit, which covered food at all parts of the food chain – paddock, packhouse, presentation (retail & hospitality), and plate (consumer). It provided a holistic view, showcasing the amazing work and innovation already being done in the food waste space, as well as highlighting the gaps to be filled.

So how have we started in our journey to support SDG 12.3:

On International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, 29th September, in collaboration with Love Food Hate Waste, we will be launching a food waste video. The video will focus on valuing your food and making the most of leftovers. Follow us on Facebook to see the video.
With the success of Nose-to-Tail July launched in 2020, the campaign was continued in 2021. Nose-to-Tail July promotes eating all edible parts of the animal, from the head to the tail, in an effort to minimise waste and eat thoughtfully and respectfully.
We’ve shared the NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 recently launched ‘Food Waste Reduction Roadmap’ with our food service database of restaurants to provide food waste solutions for hospitality.
We have started incorporating food waste reduction tips with new recipes on www.recipes.co.nz. On International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste will be sharing a new tab titled ‘Leftovers’ which will provide lots of ideas on how to use leftover cooked beef and lamb.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Retail Meat New Zealand have supported the University of Auckland to conduct meat waste research with independent butchers across New Zealand.
In-house we’ve created a zero food waste culture, ensuring all food from recipe development is shared and eaten, there is zero food waste from our events and we compost all kitchen scraps (which nourish our in-house nutritionist’s worms and chickens).

Watch this space as we continue on the food waste journey - they’ll be more to come.