Dairy firm Emmi has announced its commitment to cutting food waste in its Swiss operations in half by 2030, in line with federal government targets.
The head of Emmi Switzerland, Marc Heim, Federal councillor Simonetta Sommaruga and representatives of 28 Swiss companies and associations from the retail and wholesale sectors, agriculture, hospitality industry and processing industry signed a cross-industry agreement to reduce food waste on 12 May 2022.
The cross-industry agreement gives Emmi’s sustainability model an ancillary stimulus, the company said in a statement.
Food Waste Reduction
Since 2017, Emmi has managed to reduce its own food waste by 11%.
Approximately one-third of the food produced in Switzerland is wasted or lost each year, corresponding to an average of 330 kilos of waste per capita.
Commenting, Sommaruga said, “To make progress, all stakeholders need to pull together. Cooperation is crucial to gradually reduce food waste and achieve the targets set.”
Emmi is cooperating with partners, e.g., Too Good To Go, to raise awareness among its consumers and employees. Several of its products are being labelled 'Often good for longer’, which will help keep safe-to-eat foods in circulation for longer periods of time.
Other concrete measures implemented by Emmi are increasing donations of unsold food to philanthropic organisations, improving packaging to allow longer shelf lives, offering the opportunity to its workforce to take home unsold meals from the staff restaurant at preferential prices, and reducing losses and waste in production.
Emmi and the other parties involved in the agreement aim to annually collect data of the amount of food lost and the progress made, and will forward this data to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). This will enable the environmental and financial savings to be determined.
Emmi reported 'steady growth' in its most recent financial year, it said in January.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Nikita Naz Siddique. For more Fresh Produce news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
