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International Day of Awareness of Food Loss & Waste 2022

In 2019 the U.N General Assembly established the day of awareness of food loss and waste to highlight and call action to means of reducing food waste around the world. Since 2019, various organisations, such as WRAP have reported the successes of the international day.

Food Waste in the UK

In 2018 it was estimated by wrap that the UK produced around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste. WRAP found the waste comprised of:

• 6 million tonnes (70%) from households
• 5 million tonnes (16%) from manufacturers
• 1 million tonnes (12%) from hospitality and food service
• 3 million tonnes (3%) from the retail industry

Preventing Food Waste

As a provider of temperature controlled storage and added value services to the food sector, Magnavale offers various methods to reduce the loss of shelf-life and therefore reduce food losses for manufacturers, retailers and foodservices.

Blast Freezing

Blast Freezing is the process of pushing cold air at high velocity across a product in order to freeze it down to -18°C extremely quickly; maintaining quality and preserving nutrients. The quicker a product reaches deep freeze temperatures, the longer it will last when defrosted, which means less shelf life lost and decreased wastage. Generally, the faster you can freeze a food product, the better the resulting product will be in terms of bacterial growth, taste, texture and shelf life.

Microwaving

Microwave up-tempering is the process of up-tempering a product from -18°C to just below 0°C within a few minutes. This process is mainly used when a frozen product is required at chilled temperatures before being despatched. Compared to traditional thawing processes, which are extremely slow and frequently have drip loss (the loss in weight of a product through moisture loss in the thawing process), in the range of 16%, microwaving is much quicker, reduces lost life and has only 4% drip loss. For example, microwaving protein products, such as pork and beef, will save between 6% and 15% in yield loss.

Creating Flexibility within the Supply Chain

As well as blast freezing & up-tempering services, Magnavale has developed a portfolio of other added value services that enable our partners to increase the flexibility of their supply chain. With re-packing, date coding and labelling solutions, we can help our partners adapt to any changes within their cold chain.

If you’re interested in blast freezing, up-tempering or our added value services call 01246 854999 or visit www.magnavale.co.uk/contact/