To ensure our products remain safe and of consistent quality, we maintain the highest standards of food safety across our sites and operations. When meat products leave the factory, the conditions in which they are stored and transported is vital to sustaining safety, quality, taste and appearance. We are working on several cutting-edge scientific projects to ensure consistent quality meat, maximise product shelf life and reduce food waste, and continue to seek ways to reduce food waste by collaborating with other stakeholders at each stage pf the product life cycle.
Provide consistent high-quality meat and improve storage technology to extend shelf life and reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.
CDES
Using Controlled Dose Electrical Stimulation we aim to reduce the incidence of less tender meat and drive consistency. This technology is unique to us in the UK and EU. We continue to develop our exclusive Constant Current Electrical Stimulation equipment, which effectively controls carcase pH decline, avoiding undesirable degrees of variation in the eating quality of beef. Recent research work includes proving the efficacy of CDES in collaboration with Meat Technology Ireland, and ongoing collaboration with Dr Mohammed Gagaoua, a proteomics expert, who spent three and a half year researching beef tenderness with us under an EU Marie Sklowdowska-Curie Career-FIT Fellowship, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
SHELF LIFE
By continuously improving the environment in which our products are packaged, we are able to extend the shelf life and reduce food waste. Creating an anaerobic environment using vacuum packaging has long been the best method of preservation for red meat, which also helps meat quality to mature and improve. Much of our product portfolio is vacuum packed, and we are working with packaging and equipment suppliers on retail ready solutions.
Innovative storage technology is utilised to manage the supply chain as demand for various products fluctuates, allowing us to provide consistent quality meat in the right volumes at the right times. This provides our customers and consumers with a good eating experience and helps to minimise waste.
- Using deep chilling, microwave tempering and freeze-thaw technology to stabilize the supply chain, allows us to meet demand at various times, maximising carcase value and utilisation and eliminates waste.
- We are experimenting with metagenomics, a gene sequencing tool, to build a better understanding of food microbiomes than current microbiological testing allows. This new knowledge may allow us to naturally extend the life of our products as the technology becomes more available in the future.
- We ensure that shelf life is established using the most up to date knowledge and protocols, meaning we can be sure we are continually striving to reduce food waste and maintain safe, wholesome food by achieving the best possible shelf life.
FOOD WASTE ALONG THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Around a third of all food produced globally for human consumption is wasted or lost, accounting for about 8% of global GHG emissions and about a quarter of the water used in agriculture. We focus efforts on reducing waste along the supply chain, from farm to consumer, and as signatories to WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment and Meat in a Net Zero World, are working towards the collective ambition to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.
- We engage with farmers to improve animal health and welfare, reducing mortality and food waste.
- As a result of our commitment to valorisation, utilisation, and LEAN processing, food waste from our production as a percentage of finished product is consistently below 1%.
- We work with customers to improve on-pack home storage instructions, such as changing freezing advise from ‘at day of purchase’ to ‘before the use by date’, and increasing frozen storage times from 1 month to 3 months.
- We support WRAP’s UK Food Waste Action Week, a consumer engagement campaign to alert UK citizens to the link between waste food and climate change, and to highlight ways to reduce waste in the home.
- We support and donate food to FareShare in the UK and FoodCloud in Ireland.