Feeding people, not landfills
To fight food waste, Arla donates their surplus food. In 2018, 1200 tonnes of dairy products were handed out to people in need.
Each year 1,3 billion tonnes of food are wasted or lost, globally. Needless to say, the environmental, economic and social impacts are enormous. If only 25 per cent of it was saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people.
At Arla, we are aware of the problem. It happens that our products cannot be sold via traditional sales channels. Either the expected demand did not meet the supply, or the products did not meet customer specifications, e.g. packaging.
At Arla we strive to either sell the surplus food as animal feed, use it in biogas plants for energy production or send it to waste handling, or donate for good purposes.
For years Arla has been partnering with FEBA, a non-profit network organisation which brings together 326 food banks in 23 countries throughout Europe such as Fareshare in the UK, Fødevarebanken in Denmark, Die Tafel in Germany, and the Dutch food bank.
In 2018, Arla provided more than 1200 tonnes of dairy products through FEBA. This was enough to make more than 2,800,000 meals for people in need.*
Arla intends to further increase its provision of food supplies to help support those in need. Our aim is to reduce food waste with 50% at a processing level compared to milk intake 2015-2030, but in those occasions where food waste occurs, Arla intends to further increase its provision of food supplies to help support those in need.
*recalculation based on methodology used by FairShare in the UK.
