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Why packaging is merely the thin end of the wedge in meat processing sustainability
When it comes to meat sustainability, much of the focus to date has been placed prior to the plant or on plastic packaging, but the entire processing line efficiency is key to making big reductions in CO2 emissions and saving costs over equipment lifetime.
Media reports on the climate impact of eating meat and dairy have captured consumers’ imagination in recent times, with figures suggesting these two categories account for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, it’s possible that the influence of these headline figures has skewed processors’ actions on cleaning up their carbon footprint towards the packaging end of the spectrum, as an area where they can effect immediate change, rather than taking the bigger picture of meat processing into consideration.
Indeed, a recent google search and AI overview of how meat suppliers and processors can improve sustainability focuses primarily on packaging, feed sourcing, manure, waste, water and soil management, and slaughtering. Yet, apart from general advice on automation, the topic of processing more sustainably along the whole processing line in meat plants themselves seems to have been largely overlooked.
While an EU Commission study highlights the “critical importance” of automation for sustainability in meat production, and notes that “without the use of automation, the sector may struggle to meet the increasing demands for efficiency, productivity and environmental responsibility that are necessary to remain competitive in the future”, it does not really address how the various factors and equipment along the process can each have a role in that efficiency process, reducing CO2 emissions and saving on costs.
Meanwhile, a recent article that acknowledges sustainability as “a real catalyst for change” in meat processing, also focuses on the attention on packaging as a way to reduce overall environmental impact in the aim to make meat a sustainable choice for consumers.
However, looking from a broader perspective, there is an increasingly convincing argument that any steps taken towards carbon footprint reduction, no matter how small, can all add up to a greater whole.
One company looking to help meat processors understand the environmental savings that can be made all along the supply chain is Multivac – and it’s doing so with some hard-hitting figures. In a recent podcast, the equipment company points out that plastic in packaging contributes to less than 1% of the carbon footprint in terms of an overall pack of beef, for example.
While the company acknowledges the broad estimate that every 1kg of beef accounts for 29kg of CO2 and 16,000 litres of water per raised animal, it says there is a huge amount that can be done along the whole of the processing line to reduce that CO2 level and subsequent environmental impact.
Putting this into perspective, Liam Smith, processing business unit manager at Multivac, reveals that 900,600 metric tonnes of beef are consumed in the UK every year. This, he says, according to the worst statistics found could even translate to as much as 89m tonnes of CO2, as one kilogram of beef (beef herd) produces an average of 99.48 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO2eq).
As such, it’s vital for all businesses to work on improving their environmental footprint, not only in the face of consumer pressure, but simply because the Earth cannot cope.
Earth Overshoot day
This is the day every year we reach the limit where we cannot replenish the resources that we have used. In the UK in 2024, this was reached on 1st June. Research, he says, suggests that, on average, the Earth is in deficit by nearly a full planet (1.7) in terms of CO2 emissions and, for that to change substantially, meat processing companies – alongside all others – need to review and improve their sustainability credentials.
For Multivac, that comes down to two different aspects – firstly improving the company’s own environmental impact in the way that it operates and, secondly, helping its customers to reduce their CO2 emissions right along the processing line.
Multivac’s goals for sustainability improvement
As a company, Multivac aims to achieve a 50% carbon reduction in its business by 2035, moving to 90% by 2045 with the end-goal of net-zero. Forty-nine per cent of this will come from company vehicles, with the business looking to take trucks off the road, while a second tranche will look at reducing overall executive travel. Its third activity, which is already implemented, lies in the use of solar panels on its buildings.
“The machinery meat processors choose can make all the difference,” says Smith.
In its newly revamped Innovation Centre, shown off to clients at its recent 40-year anniversary celebration, Multivac facilitates trials of different machines and tools to demonstrate how carbon footprint reduction can be achieved right along the processing line.
Taking steak, as an example, Liam Chapman, product manager for TVI meat portioning systems explains the strapline that TVI represents: ‘One more steak’. He says producing one retail steak of 8oz or 227g is equivalent to the carbon footprint of driving a family car 35 miles – or 10kg of CO2. With a fixed price structure in the UK and retailers requiring highly weight-accurate steaks for their customers, any portioning machine to deliver these must be highly accurate and efficient. The aim is to maximise yield efficiency and reduce giveaway every single time, requiring close analysis of how many saleable steaks a processor can achieve from, for example, 100kg of raw materials.
The company’s TVI range of machinery, used for portioning steaks for retail – be it beef, pork or lamb – is very precise in that regard, says Chapman. While cutting a steak, for example, the TVI presses the meat in three dimensions, creating a regular shape and weight-accurate end-product. Discarded ends from the primal can be turned into a sellable steak, he notes. Not only does this save on giveaway, but reduces the CO2 output that might be used in further processing from downgrading primal product into mince, for example, all of which adds to further associated labour, costs and carbon footprint.
To give a recent example Multivac has just installed two recently launched TVI GMS1000 lines into a UK customer’s plant, which has given them the potential to reduce their carbon footprint by 340 tonnes of CO2 per year and increase their profit margins by £1.6m per year vs their old scanner portioner technology.
On a larger machine like the TVI GMS1600, a processor could go through an average of 50 tonnes of beef a week, so if a processor is saving 1% of that, they are saving 50kg which is a huge amount, he reveals.
When it comes to portioning sliced cooked meats, the principle of saving on giveaway is the same, as Lewis Pascoe, product manager for slicing at Multivac outlines on the podcast. High tech scanning systems on the Multivac high-speed slicer TVI predict how many slices can be obtained from a portion and ensures weight accuracy.
In addition, a lot of UK producers in sliced cooked meats will crust-freeze their product, he adds. “With Multivac, the offset position of the blade on the machine in relation to the product puts less friction on it, but enough tension to be able to cut the product from above, giving a gentler cut. And in tests with crust freezing, we’ve been able to remove that process completely from the slicing – and thereby save a lot of money and in turn reduce their carbon footprint significantly. The saving we made for one customer in the UK, purely on saving on crust-freezing, was around £1m over a 10-year cycle and 3000 tons of CO2.
“If you imagine that you have 15-20 slicers in a large cooked meats factory and six to eight crust freezers to serve product all day long, that amounts to around 3,000 houses’ energy per factory. It’s a huge impact, just by taking out crust-freezing.”
According to Pascoe, high-tech scanning systems in their high-speed slicers predict the correct portion weight. This ensures minimal giveaway, increases yield, and maintains weight acceptance rates. In the UK, many producers of sliced cooked meats use crust-freezing to facilitate cutting, but Pascoe notes that Multivac’s technology allows them to eliminate this process. The specific design of the blade and its positioning minimises friction, making it possible to slice with less tension and pressure, while still achieving clean cuts.
By removing crust-freezing, Multivac has helped one UK customer forecast savings of approximately £1m over a 10-year period and reduced their carbon footprint by 500 tonnes of CO2. Pascoe emphasises that in large factories with multiple slicers and crust freezers running continuously, eliminating this step results in significant energy savings – equivalent to 1.2 million miles driven by a petrol-powered car. This innovation not only optimises the slicing process but also contributes to environmental sustainability, offering both financial and ecological benefits to producers.
When it comes to products such as mince or burgers, another range of Multivac equipment – the Laska bowl choppers, grinders, mixers and emulsifiers – come into play. According to Karl Jones, processing product manager at Multivac, the company has added data loggers to the incoming supply to its grinders, for example, to show existing and potential customers how much energy these are using per trial. “By doing that, we have shown our equipment is 30% more energy-efficient in terms of power consumption than other machines in the market,” he says.
Laska’s high-spec motors and drives are one factor in this efficiency. However, another is the feedback technology of the equipment, as Jones explains. “Unlike other machines in the market, which run as fast as they can all the time, the minute you press start, Laska measures resistance or how much power it’s using, so as not to force the meat into the worm. That allows gentle transfer of the product from the feed worm to the working worm – with two benefits: you don’t get a spike in kilowatt power when trying to force meat through; and it’s gentle on the product as you limit the temperature rise, which means better product quality. If you can keep the meat cold out of the grinder, for example, then you might not need to use any sort of CO2 cooling in the next part of the process."
Jones has estimated that, over a period of 10 years, a company can save £200,000 and a minimum of 400 tonnes of CO2 by using its Laska machines. Again, translated into layman’s terms, that’s the equivalent of five petrol tankers of fuel or electricity in 80 homes for a year. “Over 10 years, the machine pays for itself,” he says.
“These incremental gains over the short term add up to a huge carbon footprint reduction in the Important longer term which is amazing for the future of our industry and the planet.
“However, for some producers sustainability simply isn’t at the top of their priorities at the moment as we all continue to be squeezed by the current economic situation and cost of living crisis but those in this situation, fear not, one of the pillars of sustainability is profitability and as we have shown with our examples these go hand in hand to keep producers increasingly sustainable and profitable which is absolutely win-win for all to ensure we operate responsibly for now and the future.”
