This SDG is all about building resilient and sustainable food supply chains. While we fully endorse the environmental aspects within this SDG, we also pay specific attention to social compliance and responsible sourcing (cfr. SDG 8).

One specific sub-target 12.3 is especially relevant for Greenyard and its retail customers: “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.”

To this end, we team up with our customers to extend the shelf life of our products, to optimise our packaging by making it fully recyclable and to minimise the use of packaging without compromising food safety or shelf life. Many of our innovations – our meal kits in particular – provide optimal portioning of vegetables to prepare a healthy dinner. The same applies to the products of our Frozen division which enable long-term preservation and smart portioning.

But there is still a lot of work to be done. On the consumer side, about 30% of food still ends up as waste in developed countries. Raising awareness on the optimal storage of food, the benefits of seasonal produce and the amount of ingredients that are needed for meals, is something that needs to be addressed. In our part of the chain, food waste is much more limited and well below 5%, including the waste at the retailer. This is especially true for retailers who have fully adopted our “fork to field” approach.