CONSUMER INTERESTS IN

FOOD PROCESSING WASTE

MANAGEMENT AND CO-
PRODUCT RECOVERY (CH#2)
Group # 2 members
Mubashra Niaz
Akash sulehri
Ahsan qayyum
Outline :
 Introduction
 Social issues related to sustainability
Sustainability
Consumer issues
Risk management & transparency
 Implications for food processors
 Future trends
2.1 Introduction: consumer interests as a key driver to improve

waste management in food processing

■ More than 10 million tonnes of food processing waste are produced within the
European Community every year.
■ The costs associated with handling the waste produced within the food industry
constitute many tens of millions of euros,
■ attributable to landfill costs and other waste disposal routes. waste is also contain
significant amounts of valuable components.
There are many kinds of potentially valuable components in these wastes:

■ Nutrients and micronutrients (protein, dietary fibre, prebiotics, antioxidants and

other bioactive polyphenolics), rheological agents (hydrocolloids, gelling agents,
films and coatings), texturised residues, flavours and colourants (juices)
Their utilization

in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutraceutical high-value products, as well as in

contributing to medium-value food and feed ingredients.

Possible food products that can be reprocessed from food waste.

In the past, most of the waste of the food processing industry has been used as
landfill, or has been fed to farm animals.

Recent changes in the legislative framework, such as the bovine spongiform

encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, have forced the food industry to reconsider

recycling practices. However, at the present time, increasing attention is being

 are not just interested in sustainability but also in food safety, food quality and A number of

other issues; for example, emotional responses to novel foods, which may arise as A

consequence of food reprocessing.

In particular, due consideration of these issues should be made when considering recycling food

waste into new food products developed for consumer purchase.

Account should be taken of consumer acceptance of the different technological innovations

applied during the production process, as well as consumer perceptions of the motives of
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■ for example, is there a dominant consumer attitude that industry is engaging in recycling
practices in order to increase profitability, rather than to increase the sustainability of
production processes?) and perceptions of risk.
■ Previous risk events such as the BSE crisis may negatively predispose consumers towards
recycling food wastes within the food chain, even if the recycled product is not destined
for human consumption. During the BSE scare, consumer concern was underpinned by the
recycling of animal waste into the human food chain in the form of animal feed. As a
consequence there may be consumer concerns about the use of reprocessed waste in novel
food production.
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■ Due account will be taken of factors driving consumer attitudes towards novel
food products (for example, risk perception, perceptions of benefit and
consumer trust in food producers and regulators with responsibility for
consumer protection).
Sustainability
■ The development of increasingly intensive and
specialized forms of agriculture has culminated in what
some refer to as ‘industrial food production’ or ‘chemical
farming systems.
■ The farm is viewed as a factory with inputs and outputs,
aiming at increased yields with reduced costs, often by
exploiting the economies of scale. It is accompanied by
use of and reliance on agrochemicals, large-scale mono-
cropping, and mechanization and energy consumption.
The primary objective of such agricultural systems is to
produce as much food and fiber as poosible at low cost.
Issues or problem are arises for the environment and social aspects

and effort to reduce them?

■ The problems centre on both the environmental aspects and on the social and
community aspects of food production.
■ For example, current high-intensity practices in the agri-food sector not only have
a negative impact on the supply and quality of water, these practices also cause
erosion, unfertile soils, contamination by pesticides, excessive use of synthetic
chemicals, and various levels of pollution of groundwater, soils and atmosphere.
■ Arguably, existing methods of food production may contribute to negative changes
within the ecosystem.
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■ At the present time, there are increased efforts within the food industry to develop
more sustainable food production practices, in part a response to consumer and
regulatory demands.
■ At the top of the sustainability agenda is conservation of resources related to energy
and water use.
■ Although sustainability in its broadest sense focuses on the conservation of natural
resources, many of the goals of the food industry specifically reflect the need for
increased sustainability in the sense of renewable resource use and a significantly
reduced environmental burden of food production.
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■ International commitments towards improved sustainability to minimize
the impact of waste on the environment and human health. In the European
Community (EC), the importance of reducing waste has been reflected in
stringent legislation, particularly to reduce biodegradable waste disposed to
landfill, 35% of 1995 levels by 2016, and the Hazardous Waste Directive
(91/689/EEC) which includes cereal and vegetable food processing wastes.
■ Across European Union (EU) member states, the amount of organic waste sent to
landfill will be severely limited in the future.

■ The impact of the legislation on food processors is also being increased by other

regulations in the area of food safety.

■ For example, there are now restrictions on feeding many co-products to animals, and

animal husbandry across Europe has been reduced as a result of public concerns such as

dietary well Consumer interests in food processing waste management being and safety

issues such as BSE (Windhorst, 2001).

Consumer Issues
 Consumer not accept organic by-products as ingredient in
food products
 They consider by-products as “waste”
 BSE and other issues related to recycling of waste products in
the food chain, this would imply consumer rejection of the
upgrading of organic by-products
 ‘Waste management’ may turn out to be one that does not
facilitate consumer acceptance of food products
 will use the term ‘by-product’ instead of ‘waste’, because it is
a more neutral term
Cont.…
 Consumers should have an important role in this process of
 what
 when
 how
novel products are introduced
 Important reason of opposition of consumers to novel agri-food
technologies is,
 negative consumer responses for ‘technology push’ by certain
producers
 Ethical and moral considerations & other values like concern about
the integrity of nature & trust in the regulatory system
 They play a part in societal and consumer acceptance
Cont.…
■ Substantial equivalence not address consumer concerns
■ Thus not relevant to consumer fears
■ The negative public reaction to GM foods was therefore less
to do with risk
■ More to do with consumer choice and the failure to deliver
information about what actually driving consumer concerns
■ Opaque risk analysis systems, decision-making practices not
helpful in reassuring the public
Cont.…
■ Creative capacity of consumers can shape technological
development in all the innovation process
■ To develop a product specially after 5 to 10 years, consult of
public must be consider
■ Strategic niche management is development of certain
protected spaces
■ CTA increase consumer participation and influnce in the
innovative process itself
■ The food industry must introduce an empirical analysis of
consumer acceptances
Cont.…
■ Some consumers fear new food products based on
unknown technological developments
■ Food safety issues are managed and regulated has been
the result of managers, assessors
■ Communication that does not address public concerns
have a limited role in reassuring the public
■ The consumer will be able to purchase food that
through waste avoidance, full traceability produced in
a healthy manner
CONT…

■ Lac of control can be countered by reassuring

conclusion
■ Social inclusion is important if consumers are to
build trust in risk analysis
Risk management and transparency
■ Consumer risk perceptions differ from those held by
other stakeholders involved in food production and risk
analysis.
■ Some factors (for example, whether a hazard is
voluntary in terms of exposure or technological in
origin)
■ Other factors are domain specific (for example, people
may have concerns about the potential for negative
effects on animal welfare in the case of BSE, concerns
that will not apply to other types of potential hazard such
as food irradiation).
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■ Other factors are domain specific (for example,
people may have concerns about the potential for
negative effects on animal welfare in the case of BSE,
concerns that will not apply to other types of potential
hazard such as food irradiation).
■ Psychological factors are important in influencing
people’s responses to a particular hazard. The technical
risk estimates traditionally provided by experts have
little influence on people’s behaviors and responses.
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■ For example, a risk that people perceive to be involuntary in
terms of their personal exposure is more threatening than one that
they choose to take, even if the probability of harm is the same, or
possibly even less.
■ Naturally occurring risks are less threatening than hazards that are
technological in origin.
■ Public risk perceptions have been shown to be particularly
important determinants of public responses to activities in the agri-
food area. These include food safety the biosciences and the
possible unintended negative environmental and health impacts of
technology
Continue..
■ food choice is as much a cultural, social and emotional
process as it is a rational choice.
■ The purchase of products perceived as recycled waste
may be problematic in terms of perceived quality
reduction.
■ Consumers also demand the enforcement of effective
traceability systems and, as a consequence, are likely to
demand the introduction of utilitarian labelling
strategies focusing on both sustainability and food
production.
Continue..
■ Miles and Frewer (2001) have noted that public risk
perceptions associated with the BSE crisis were driven by the
failure of government and the industry to provide information
relevant to the actual concerns of consumers
■ BSE-related risk communication was based on technical risk
assessments, ignoring key issues of concern to the public.
These included worry about animal welfare and effective
communication regarding risk uncertainty. .
Implications for food processors
■ Food processing is a costly enterprise. Research and development
costs are very high, but profit margins are low compared with other
sectors. The level of regulatory scrutiny currently imposed on new
food products is high and unprecedented, increasing the cost of
developing novel products. The development and costs of such
regulatory requirements may have significant negative impacts on
by-product management in food processing. This implies that only
a few companies may decide on the management of byproducts.
■ Consumer concerns about corporate control are immediately
related to issues of ownership and food-supply-chain control.
Continue..
■ Consumer concerns about corporate control are immediately related
to issues of ownership and food-supply-chain control.
■ Management of by-products is seen as economic investment that
requires return. This will raise concerns about the accessibility,
monitoring and desirability of the use of by-products in food
products.
■ It is, of course, important that the food industry develops a ‘code of
conduct’ regarding the socio-economic impact of sustainable
production processes. Such a code may not just serve humanitarian,
ethical, environmental and other ‘non-competitive’ goals, but may
also serve an economic purpose.
Continue..
■ Quality and environmental policy are, for example, integrated
parts of the ISO 14000 certification. Codes of conduct are
likely to be particularly relevant when producers face a lack of
trust from their stakeholders, when laws and regulations of the
government are not specific regarding the issue at hand and
when people from different cultures meet and interact.
FUTURE TRENDS
■ Place and need for research into mechanisms of agenda
setting food processing industry,
■ Researchers aware to include society deserve a ‘license to
produce’ and a ‘license to sell’
■ This awareness incorporated into management is unclear
and requires analyses and approaches
■ Consumer acceptance of novel foods produced byproducts is
contingent on understanding consumer concerns relating to
both
 food products themselves
 processes by which they have been produced