FSSC 22000 Version 7 carries the additional requirement, introduced in Version 6, that an organisation has a documented policy and objectives for reducing food loss and waste within its operation and its supply chain, with the strategy reviewed by management. Separately, South African retailers and their international customers are increasingly asking suppliers for their food loss and waste figures as part of sustainability reporting under frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target of halving per capita food waste by 2030. Both asks come back to the same question: do you know how much food you lose, where, and why. Most sites do not, because the losses are recorded, if at all, as scrap in production and write-offs in finance, in different units, in different files.
What counts as food loss and waste
Food loss is food that leaves the supply chain before retail, typically through processing losses, rejects, spillage, spoilage in storage and product withdrawn for quality reasons. Food waste is food that reaches retail or consumption and is discarded. For a manufacturer the measurable categories are raw material rejected at receiving, process loss (trim, giveaway, start-up and changeover losses), finished product rejected at quality control, product written off in storage, and product returned or withdrawn. Each has a point in the process where it can be weighed or counted and a reason that can be coded.
What the standard wants to see
A policy signed by management. Objectives with targets, for example reducing process loss on a line from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent in twelve months. A measurement method that is applied consistently. Records of the measurement. A review by management that looks at the numbers and adjusts the plan. The auditor’s question is the same as for culture: what is the number, what was it, and what are you doing about the gap.
Measuring it on the line
The practical method is to record losses where they happen, in the units the floor uses, with a reason code. Trim and start-up loss weighed at the line at the end of each run. Rejects at receiving recorded on the receiving check with the quantity and the reason. Quality rejects recorded on the release record. Storage write-offs recorded when stock is adjusted, with the reason. Returns and withdrawals recorded on the complaint or recall record. Each of those is already a record on a paperless FSMS. The food loss and waste figure is the sum, by category, by reason, by period, converted to a common unit and expressed against production.
Turning records into a reportable figure
Once the losses are coded, the report writes itself: tonnes lost per tonne produced, by line, by reason, by month, with a trend against the target. That figure goes into the management review for FSSC 22000, into the retailer’s supplier questionnaire, and into the company’s sustainability reporting. The same records show where to act, because the largest reason code on the largest line is usually a process problem with a known fix.
What ASCloud will do
The food loss and waste tool is the next automated tool in the ASC shop, launching soon at R750 per site per year. It adds reason codes and loss capture to the receiving, production, release and inventory records already on ASCloud, holds the policy and objectives, and produces the loss report by category, line, reason and period against the targets. Until it launches, sites on the full document FSMS plan can record losses as a field on the existing records and ASC will migrate the data into the tool.
Measure the loss, then reduce it
Reason-coded losses captured on the records you already keep, reported against targets for FSSC 22000 and your retailers. Launching soon at R750 per site per year.
Frequently asked questions
Is food loss and waste audited under BRCGS?
BRCGS Issue 9 does not have a specific clause, but environmental and sustainability questions appear in many retailer supplier audits and in the BRCGS Ethical Trade and Responsible Sourcing standard.
What unit should we report in?
Mass is the common unit for reporting. Record in whatever the floor uses and convert in the report.
Does by-product sent to animal feed count as loss?
Under most frameworks, food redirected to animal feed is counted separately from loss sent to landfill or energy recovery. Code the destination so the report can separate them.
Can we start before the tool launches?
Yes. Add a loss quantity and reason field to your existing records now. The data migrates into the tool at launch.