Sustainability In The Food Processing Industry: Your Guide To Improve Energy Efficiencies

By Dr. Doug Reid, Engineering Manager at TOMRA Sorting Food

As environmental scrutiny of global industries continues to grow, governments are seeking to impose energy efficiency targets on companies in order to comply with new directives. One solution is to encourage energy suppliers to become energy service companies, who work with customers to identify potential savings and share the benefits this delivers.

For the global food processing industry, this provides a welcome opportunity to measure and accurately assess the energy utilization of the manufacturing process and the impact of energy improvements at each step. Food processors have always held a keen interest in identifying ways to improve efficiencies, while demonstrating to customers and stakeholders that they are doing their best to minimize their carbon footprints.

Since the introduction of ISO 14067 - an international standard which lays out the principles, requirements and guidelines for the quantification and communication of the carbon footprint of a product - processors are now able to benchmark the impact of their activities on the environment against competitors.