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How to recover each type of surplus in food manufacturing
Surplus type
Approach
1. Preparation
3. Quality control (QC)
4. Giveaway
5. Changeover
Repurpose Pastry offcuts can be cooked with other surplus ingredients to make pies. Vegetable offcuts can be made into healthy soups and, with protein added, into stews. Repack Surplus produced during preparation can be packaged up and recovered. When vegetable grower and manufacturer, Barfoots , prepares butternut squash and sweet potatoes, cutting them into squares, there are some offcuts which are still nutritious but don’t fit within specifications. Felix repack these nutritious vegetables and transports them to charities.
Since May 2024, 210 tonnes of root vegetables – equivalent to 0.5 million meals – have been redirected through the Morrisons and Myton Food Group collaboration with Felix. Redirect Produce which has been graded out can be simply redirected. Millions of pounds of underweight cereal bars are repackaged into larger packets and sent to Felix at a cost of £10,000 a year – just 2.3% of the retail value. Relabel When items are over or under a weight requirement, the label can be updated, enabling recovery. At a bakery firm, 3-4% of baked goods with aesthetic quality issues are recovered to Felix. That is 7-11 tonnes of edible food every week, worth £1.8 million a year at a cost to the baker of just £155,000. Repack Where items regularly fail a check – such as pastry or bread not meeting a colour specification due to uneven cooking at an industrial scale – these can be put into compliantly labelled packaging and picked up by Felix. Relabel/redirect If there is a QC issue on an item that was created to be exported, it can be relabelled to ensure it is traceable and compliant in the UK. Repurpose Food that doesn’t pass QC but is still edible can be transformed into something completely new. Raspberries that are too soft to eat could be collected and juiced at Felix hubs, or third party facilities.
When farmers have produced more than can be sold, Felix helps with harvesting produce that would otherwise go to waste. Redirect If manufacturers regularly create excess volumes of food, Felix can redirect those items. Premium, pre-prepared meals brand known for their delicious, handmade dishes, Charlie Bigham’s , provides a regular expected supply of sauce to Felix. This is used to create rice and pasta dishes by charities. Repack If a supplier creates more sauce than is required, it can be bagged up for Felix to collect. Felix used a batch of McDonald’s fries to create a potato soup. Repurpose Excess can be turned into a repurposed dish on site or in collaboration with other partners.
Waitrose worked with their supplier Daybreak as when changeovers between pasta shapes takes place, some broken pasta is produced. This is repacked into surplus packaging and sent to Felix. Repack Items can be produced during flushing, cleaning and recalibrating which are still edible.
6. Planning
On one line, Two Sisters Food Group sends millions of pounds worth of food to Felix every year. When breaded chicken fails quality check for visual issues, such as uneven coating, it is re-run through the packing line into plastic boxes, chilled on site and collected three times a week by volunteers. Stickers are added making it clear that these items are for Felix and not for resale. Leaders are committed to investing resources into getting edible but unsaleable food to people in need. Repack If there has been overproduction, wrong product runs or idle production capacity, items can be repacked and moved to charities.
2. Operations
Redirect When items fall outside specifications or inefficiencies create surplus, for instance misshapen or extra fruit and vegetables, they can be simply redirected to Felix.
Fresh produce supplier, Primafruit’s second and third grade bananas are placed into dolavs. Felix collect and move them to their regional hubs to repackage them. This provides a regular supply of high quality fruit, at little cost to the manufacturer and with the benefit of not having to send items to waste. When BerryWorld’s berries are either too small or misshapen for retailers to sell, this fruit is placed into lined crates donated by WestPak , which is then collected by Felix each day. Relabel If an incorrect ingredient has been added to a ready meal, or items have been made for a foreign market but can’t be sent due to purchasing, forecasting or shipping errors, relabelling makes recovery possible.
“There is so much that we do to help. We’re not asking anyone to set up new packing stations on their site. We have volunteers and a processing line at Oakland International that can prepare products to go to charities. In the case of Two Sisters’ breaded chicken, the food that fails QC is set to one side. Then when there is capacity, it is run back down the line for repacking. It’s such an easy but innovative way to use existing resources to do good.” Joshua Wheeler Senior Programme Manager – Innovation and Development, Felix “
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