State of Cleaner Production in Australian Food Industry

Profile of Food Industry

Cleaner Production was first conceived by the United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) in 1998 to create a link between the economic prosperity with the
environmental well-being of a nation maintaining that economic gains can be
achieved by improving the environmental impacts of a company (Hilson, 2003). In
the past, it was believed that by introducing environmental improvement programs,
a company is more likely to incur financial costs and make no economic gains from
it. There has been a lot going on in the food industry that has influences the need to
adopt cleaner production such as the following

An increase in the number of people that do not prepare food at home

An increase in the number of restaurants and takeaways
Automation in food production
An increase in the awareness to protect the environment
A focus on ensure quality food to the consumers

These trends have put a pressure on the companies to deliver products through a
safe and efficient mechanism. Food borne diseases can be controlled to a larger
extent if strict quality control mechanisms are introduced in the industry itself
(Newell et al, 2010). One of the key driving force for cleaner production is the fact
that companies can save themselves millions by reducing the waste and improving
their resource utilization.

Environment Challenges
Industrial food processing plants can be huge resource utilizers and thereby can be
responsible for putting in a lot of waste in the environment. In order to increase
efficiency we can focus on reducing the waste and using cleaner production as a
competitive advantage (Parfitt et al, 2010). A large number of products used on the
food industry have a tendency of ending up as waste. Maridkar and Niranjan (1995)
concluded that as much as 60-70% of some vegetables have to be disposed of as
waste. Similarly, in industries like in seafood processing, there is a significant
amount of waste that has to be disposed of properly. Considering the fact that most
of the food products are organic, the waste was considered not a big problem in the
past as people believed that it will naturally decompose (Refsgaard & Magnussen,
2009). However, as the scale of food manufacturing has increased, there has been
an increase in the awareness that proper waste management practices are needed
to be put in place. Because if it is not the case, it can result in polluting the rivers,
air as well as damaging the natural habitat of other living things.
Yet another challenge for the food industry is the packaging. It is one the most used
raw material for the industry and ends up as waste once the consumer has the
product. There has been a shift in the food industry to use packaging material that

is more environmentally friendly (Gustavsson et al, 2011). There are issues related
to the sourcing, usage and decomposing of chemical waste used in the production
processes in food plants. Food processing plants are less energy intensive when
compared to petroleum or mineral processing units. Yet, the costs related to
maintenance can be a huge stress on the industry budget. In Australia, the cost of
electricity is relatively low but it can still see improvements in utility costs due to
cleaner production.
Similarly, another key resource for food industry is water that is used for the
production and later cleaning of the equipment. It has been realized by the
authorities that they need to actively monitor the water supply not only to
agricultural users but food industries as well. The water supply costs have been
adjusted to reflect the fact that the councils in various parts of Australia are trying
to push people to make smarter decisions regarding their water usage (Mead &
Aravinthan, 2009). The food processing industry uses a lot of water for production
and cleaning purposes. The discharging of waste water is yet another issue in its
own light for food processing industries. There are costs related to the amount of
waste (usually measured in BOD/COD) that again reflect the need to be smart with
the volume of waste.
These issues are the key driving features that press the need to increase the
efficiency of the waste management. These efficiencies cannot be attained without
the collaboration between the various stakeholders in the territory. It is for these
reasons that the Queensland Food Eco-efficiency project was started.

Steps taken to implement CP

The Eco-efficiency in food processing and foundry industry project (2008-2010) was
developed with the aim of best practices that can be used and developed to address
the needs of all the players in the industry. There were a number of companies that
participated in the project along with the active participation from the Australian
Food Fisheries and Agriculture (AFFA), Department of State Development, The
Australian Industry Group (AIG) and the University of Queensland. The project
served as a great platform for various industry stakeholders to voice their concerns
and provide real-word solutions to increase industry efficiency. The project was
divided into several of the following stages

In order to increase the awareness and bring acceptability to the project,

develop a website. www.uq.edu.au/emc/cp/Food_Proect/
Developing and updating a resource manual
Developing role model assessments that can be used to get the buy-in from
other stakeholders
Providing training and resources for people in the industry to learn the skills
for effective cleaner production

The second stage involved engaging with the people who are actually doing the
hard work. Since they were closest to the process, they can provide insights that

can help control the waste in it. This was complemented with industry visits,
workshops and lectures to increase as well as create new knowledge that can later
be shared amongst the stakeholders. During that time, the Queensland government
had taken up another similar project that was run with the help of Brisbane City
Council and Qld DEEDI. It consisted to workshops that focused solely on reducing
environment waste to a minimum (Pagan & Prasad, 2007).

Challenges and Issues

The major challenges that faced the project were related to gathering the various
stakeholders for an insightful discussion. Most of the food manufacturers had
varying needs and they had to be convinced to join the discussions and share their
experiences. Fortunately, the benefits of this engagement were recognized by a
large majority of the stakeholders in the very early phase of the project as it helps in
reducing the costs and increasing the margin for profits.
The second challenge related to collecting, storing and using information that can
answer the questions related to eco-efficiency. The data collection points are
scattered as the manufacturing plants are located in various parts of Queensland.
The type of equipment used Is different and so is the case with the quality. So, the
data relating to each equipment has to be sourced so the performance and
efficiency levels can be calculated accordingly. Some plants use custom built
equipment and it becomes increasingly hard to access them and recommend them
to others since it was designed according to the companys specific needs. This is
where the academics and experts in the field stepped and helped develop manuals
and best practices that can be implemented by anyone in the industry.
Since company were sharing their data with the project, this was a huge
responsibility to ensure the security of it. Once the assessments were developed to
test the various eco-friendly measures, the information relating to the company
data had to be signed off before releasing it in the case study. Lastly, resistance to
change was yet another factor as people had been doing their jobs a particular way
and they had to be motivated and educated to adopt to the changes that were
intended to be introduced as part of the change. The processes had to be
redesigned in order to comply and meet the efficiency standards.

Case Study
The project used eight companies from various manufacturing interests for a
detailed assessment to determine the suitability of cleaner production. They
consisted of a couple of beverage and fresh salad, bread, honey and ginger
manufacturers. In addition to these, various others were part of the study to
develop the best practices. One of the participating companies was Harvest Fresh
Cuts that produces fresh chilled salads along with meals (Pagan & Prasad, 2007).
They are amongst the largest fresh meal producers in the country. It used concepts
of cleaner production and the benefits it realized can be summed up in the following
sections.

Energy

Total savings from the cleaner production amounted to $10,000 per annum
due to the following
Using duct air systems instead of split air conditioners
Using heat exchangers in the production lines that utilized waste water to
pre-chill water.
Using good ventilation practices to reduce the operating temperature in the
plant room

Water
The company has been able to reduce its water consumption by as much 15.7%
amounting to a net saving of $11,000 per annum. This was achieved through the
following capital investments

The water used for washing was reduced by 5% by using auto-cut off nozzles.
Developing an environment friendly water cleaning processes that reduced
the water consumption by 10% and the chemical usage for cleaning by up to
40%.

There are significant costs associated with the installation of new equipment that
needs to be performed to make use of the strategic benefits from the project. For
example the heat exchangers installed by Harvest Fresh Cuts cost was $50,000 but
the company will be saving $18,000 per annum. So, in less than three years the
company would have recovered its capital cost and will be able to enjoy the benefits
for the life of the heat exchangers. So, making a choice to adopt cleaner production
is a strategic move and one has to look at the broader picture and into the future to
realize its usefulness for the business.

Conclusion
The project comprised of a number of food manufacturing firms with variable
interests, however almost all of them were able to realize capital gains within the
two years of the implementation of the plan. Understandably not all adaptations are
likely to allow the company to reap the benefits in a short span of time but strategic
cost saving requires having a vision and making an effort to strive for greater
efficiency. Yet another point to consider is the fact that the companies that
participated in the program were already looking for an opportunity to reduce the
waste (Pagan & Prasad, 2007). So, a willingness to innovate and change the way
things have been done for increased efficiency is essential for achieving realizable
benefits. There are considerable barriers related to data available, process
improvement and availability of technical skills but they can be overcome with
proper training and setting up bodies like a steering committee to drive the
implementation in the right direction. Lastly, the project offers great advice in the
form of case studies and manuals for any stakeholder in the industry that aims to
achieve eco-efficiency.

References
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