Nature’s Touch Frozen Foods
Tackling Food Waste on the Fruit Production Frontline
The Situation
In 2021, Nature’s Touch set out to prevent and reduce food loss and waste at our production facilities in Abbotsford and Montreal, Canada as part of the Walmart Foundation-funded Food Loss & Waste Implementation Program.
The Solution
We identified and implemented 13 recommendations with the help of expert consultants that decreased food waste throughout various stages of processing. Below are highlights of three that had the greatest impact:
1 | Montreal | 15,587 kg/year in Fruit Savings
A large amount of product was being lost during packaging in the fillers due to bags not being fully open or overfilling of bags. We improved the maintenance and mechanical fine-tuning of bag sensors and bag openers to reduce the amount of product that misses bagging – saving 15,587 kg/year, which is equivalent to 10,000 meals in terms of calories.
2 | Abbotsford | 49,493 kg/year in Blueberry Savings
In the calibration drum machines, blueberries were often at risk of falling in between the cracks, or off the sides. Therefore, significant guarding has been put in place to stop this. Flaps have been installed to direct fruit into the totes below and prevent side losses, averting 49,493 kg/year from going to waste.
3 | Abbotsford | 66,817 kg/year in Fruit Savings
Our partners helped us notice that in the transfer from the conveyer belt to the elevator there were frozen fruit losses (mango and strawberries), so we installed a guide on the floor to make sure all frozen fruit is pushed to the elevator. So far this has eliminated 100% of previous losses (66,817 kg/ year) – or 45,073 meals a year.
“Starting a sustainability journey can be overwhelming. Partnering with experts in food loss and waste helped us use data to identify key impacts and best practices. Measurement led to better management, and our teams quickly saw the benefits of a strategic approach. Now, sustainability is a core pillar of our company, crucial for our future success.”
Deborah Wolman, Vice President, Innovation, Sustainability & Government Affairs Nature’s Touch Frozen Foods
The Impact
Nature’s Touch has implemented 13 recommendations that decreased food waste throughout various stages of processing. These included avoiding losses in conveyer transfers, installing guarding and sanitary catches under various machines or transfers, reducing gaps in the processing line, and many other machine-related improvements. Something as simple as welding a metal plate over a gap between two sections of the processing line saved $28,695 a year, 8,838 kg of blueberries a year, and only cost $1,500 to install. Thanks to the funding from the Walmart Foundation, these two facilities became ones that won’t allow food loss and waste (or blueberries) to fall through the cracks.
Savings opportunities identified:
- Financial | $824,100 per year
- Environmental | 422 tonnes CO2e and 276,022 kg of food waste/year
- Social | 195,000 meals*
*calculated based on calorie consumption
“Starting a sustainability journey can be overwhelming. Partnering with experts in food loss and waste helped us use data to identify key impacts and best practices. Measurement led to better management, and our teams quickly saw the benefits of a strategic approach. Now, sustainability is a core pillar of our company, crucial for our future success.”