Arthur Mallon Foods

Spotlight Target Area: Waste
Mallon’s mission is to create quality Irish food, while being a responsible member
of the community. Within its current sustainability plan (2019 – 2023), Mallon’s set
a target to reduce food waste by 6% over a five-year period. In 2020, the company
had reduced food waste per unit of output by 18.5%. This achievement is particularly
impressive considering sales volumes became unpredictable due to Government
Announcements regarding lock down which resulted in panic and bulk buying. Due
to the short shelf life of Mallon’s products, the company had to consider the impact
of over producing as demand fluctuated. To mediate this issue Mallon’s engaged with
Food Cloud and Penny Dinners. These business relationships provided an opportunity
to avoid surplus stock going to waste where possible and made it possible to support
the more vulnerable members of the community. Mallon’s introduced on-site
initiatives to deliver further reductions, including improvements to machinery and
training of staff to ensure waste is measured daily. A SKU Simplification Project was
completed to reduce changeover on the production lines and to group finished SKUs
to help reduce recipe waste and finished product waste.