How we at Fazer minimise waste and maximise resource efficiency
Preventing food waste is a priority for us, and our goal is to significantly decrease food waste by 2030. Fazer has business-specific Waste Prevention and Material Loss plans. The plans outline targets to prevent waste and material loss to make our business consistent with a circular economy.
Fazer’s Waste Hierarchy
Fazer has adopted the principles of the European Union’s waste hierarchy: Prevention, Preparation for Reuse, Recycling, Recovery, and Disposal. Accordingly, we aim to prevent waste from occurring in our operations. If we cannot avoid waste, we will make reusing easier. After that, we will consider the options in order of recycling and energy recovery.
Taking action to reduce waste in production
Most organic production waste is used as material for bioethanol. The rest is used for animal feed. This way, Fazer has managed to reduce the amount of food waste ending up as landfill down to below 2% Group-wide. Our new Xylitol venture will turn large side streams into ingredients and food.
Donating food
Even though we plan carefully to avoid overproduction in our bakeries, production sites, and cafés, we still make more than needed. We donate the food surplus to food aid in Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania to prevent wasting food.
When we donate food to charities, the food is used as intended: to feed humans.
Stakeholder cooperation
Fazer is involved in national and European stakeholder networks to reduce food waste. We have also joined consumer apps such as Karma and ResQ that enable us to sell leftover food at a reduced price at the end of the day.