Food waste seldom highlights the poultry sector, often overshadowed by higher loss rates in fruits and vegetables. The Horizon Europe BREADCRUMB project’s findings shed light on poultry’s low waste rates and indicate potential for further enhancements.
The BREADCRUMB project provides a rare cross-commodity benchmark, illustrating the influence of food marketing standards on waste across various food chains. It investigates how these criteria affect whether food reaches its intended market or is diverted to lower-value uses.
The poultry case study led by AVEC focused on various poultry products—whole chicken, breast fillet, legs, and processed options—across different stages of the production chain.
Noteworthy Low Waste Levels
The findings reveal that poultry maintains impressive waste levels attributed to marketing standards. The estimated waste for whole chicken is around 1%, while breast fillet is at 0.3%, legs at 0.6%, and processed products at a mere 0.1%. These figures stand out, especially when compared to other commodities in the BREADCRUMB project, like pig carcasses (8.7%), whole beef (12.5%), and fruits and vegetables, with some cases showing losses as high as 22.5%.
The Importance of Marketing Standards
The poultry sector’s efficiency aligns with its capacity to meet both sustainability and market demands, as highlighted by AVEC’s secretary general, Birthe Steenberg: “Poultry is doing much of what wider food system debates increasingly demand: minimizing losses while maximizing the use of edible products.”
The poultry industry operates on tight specifications and comprehensive planning, making it less susceptible to the fluctuations that may affect other sectors, such as appearance or seasonality-driven waste. Consequently, the BREADCRUMB benchmark indicates that marketing standards do not significantly contribute to waste in poultry.
Downgrading vs. Waste
However, the case study points out that whole chickens accounted for the highest waste share, which underscores the limited flexibility when products do not fit precise market specifications. While this does not alter the overall low-waste scenario, it illustrates where marketing standards can result in downgrading—redirecting products from premium markets to lower-value uses.
This is supported by broader meat findings, demonstrating that products unable to meet original market specifications often face price reductions (58%) or are redirected to animal feed (16%), feed (54%), or waste (45%). Thus, the problem lies more in downgrading than in large-scale waste.
Evidence of Strong Waste Performance
The key takeaway for poultry industry professionals is that the BREADCRUMB findings confirm poultry’s excellent performance concerning waste. Furthermore, they highlight areas where marketing standards could further optimize product use, mitigate downgrading, and maximize poultry meat’s value.
With ongoing discussions surrounding sustainability and resource utilization, poultry’s position is fortuitous: demonstrating low waste, effective product use, strong performance, and a solid evidence base to support its practices.
