International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste

In 2020, WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) reported that 9.5 million tonnes of all post farm-gate food in the UK is wasted; 70% of which was from private households, 16% from manufacturing sites, 12% from the hospitality and food sector and 3% from retail. A total of 1.5 million tonnes of food is wasted in the manufacturing sector, 0.8 million tonnes of this was edible food, which represents a staggering £1.1 billion of lost revenue.

Here at Magnavale, we offer several services which will help combat food waste, our most popular being Blast Freezing and Microwaving.

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, in order to maintain quality and preserve nutrients. The quicker a product reaches deep freeze temperatures, the longer it will last when defrosted, which means increasing shelf life, therefore decreasing waste. Generally, the faster you can freeze a food product down, the better the resulting product will be in terms of bacterial growth, taste, texture and shelf life.

Microwaving

Microwaving is the process of up-tempering a product from -18°C to -3°C in under 60 seconds. This process is mainly used when a frozen product is required at a different temperature before being despatched. Compared to traditional thawing processes which are extremely slow and have a 16% drip loss (the loss in weight of a product through moisture loss in the thawing process), Microwaving is much quicker, increases shelf life and only has 4% drip loss. For example, Microwaving protein products, such as Pork and Beef, will save between 6% and 15% in yield loss.

Blast Freezing and Microwaving, as well as the other added value services that we offer, are just some of the way’s manufacturers can challenge food waste. By using them, a product can be in cold storage one day, and on a supermarket shelf the next.

If you’re interested in Blast Freezing or Microwaving, call 01246 854999 or visit www.magnavale.co.uk/contact/