Food Loss, Waste and Sustainability

South Africa loses or wastes about 10.2 million tonnes of food a year, and close to half of it never reaches a household. Here is what food loss and waste actually means, the food recovery hierarchy, and what FSSC 22000 additional requirement 2.5.16 asks a certified site to do about it.

Loss and waste are not interchangeable words in a food safety audit. Here is the exact line the standards draw between them, worked examples from a production line, and why an auditor cares which word you use for a stream.

Stage loss, stage yield, cumulative yield and the mass balance that has to close before any of them mean anything. A worked example from a real production day, and the method an FSSC 22000 clause 2.5.16 baseline is actually built on.

Clause 2.5.16 a asks for a policy, a base year, a metric and objectives with a prevention plan behind them. Here is what an auditor actually checks, and the register that makes the difference between a policy on paper and one that survives audit.

Donation and animal feed are the second and third best outcomes on the food recovery hierarchy, but only if they are controlled. Here are the traceability and food safety controls FSSC 22000 clause 2.5.16 b and c actually require before surplus product leaves the gate.