Kellogg Is Reducing Food Waste

Around the world, people continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition despite the fact that, according to the World Food Programme, the world produces enough food for everyone. Part of the way we’ll solve this problem is by drastically reducing the amount of food lost or wasted. Doing so is one of the most important levers to solve the issue of food insecurity brought on by our growing population, climate vulnerability and malnutrition.

“Today, in a world dealing with the lasting repercussions of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of people facing hunger has increased significantly,” said Chief Sustainability Officer Amy Senter. “Around the world we’re working with the farmers who grow our ingredients, the people who make our foods and those who enjoy them to, together, make sure no food is wasted.”

All along our value chain, Kellogg is reducing food loss and organic waste, which includes animal feed[1], to ensure that as much food as possible goes to feeding people.  Following are some of the ways we’ve contributed:

• In Mexico, Kellogg partnered with the Mexico Food Bank Network to rescue fruits and vegetables from agricultural lands to provide people with more than 35 million servings of fresh fruits and vegetables that were at risk of being lost but able to be consumed.
• In the U.S., we’re making a concerted effort to use “perfectly imperfect” apples, strawberries and other fruits in the filling for several foods, including Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain® bars and Pop-Tarts®. Although not the first choice for supermarket shoppers, these fruits are every bit as wholesome and delicious.
• Around the world, we also donate foods that are acceptable to eat but unsaleable due to underweight quantities and less-than-perfect packaging.
• In the U.S., we’ve standardized our labels to “BEST if used by,” to help people understand how to best reduce food waste.
• Globally, we continue to move to resealable packaging that also helps reduce food waste.
• In Europe, we conducted a study on food waste at breakfast in Italy and Spain to help people understand how to reduce food waste at home.
• In all our facilities, we’ve prioritized improving production processes and modifying equipment to reduced food waste.

During our first-generation sustainability commitments, from 2005 – 2015, Kellogg reduced waste to landfill by 62%[2]. In 2016, we were one of the first companies to join a group of global leaders from government, business, research and farming communities committed to working together to meaningfully reduce food loss and waste by 2030. This group, Champions 12.3, is named for U.N. SDG target 12.3 that calls for “cutting in half per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reducing food losses along production and supply chains (including post-harvest losses) by 2030.”

[1] Kellogg has adopted the Consumer Goods Forum’s definition of food waste: food and/or associated inedible parts removed from the food supply chain and sent to disposal (landfill, draining or incineration without energy recovery).

[2] Per metric tonne of food produced.

lso  in 2016, Kellogg was an early adopter of the World Resource Institute Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard and was one of the first companies to report global food waste data by destination. At the same time, we set a 2020 Global Sustainability Commitment to reduce total waste by pound of product in all plants by 15%[3], with a focus on food waste. Since then, we’ve reduced our total waste by pound of product by 5.7% and our total organic waste by 13.4%.

Our current, more ambitious Kellogg’s® Better Days commitment, introduced in 2019, is to reduce by 50% the organic waste, including food waste, across our facilities by the end of 2030. Doing so is one part of our overall commitment to create Better Days for 3 billion people by the end of 2030. We’ll share more details on our progress in our 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report.

[3] From a 2015 baseline.