Use of KPIs in the food and drink sector

The complexity and size of the food and drink sector make it difficult to establish a robust and useful set of indicators for the whole sector. The suggested KPIs should be viewed as a useful 'starting point' from which companies can develop indicators that are specific to their organisation.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has developed a set of sustainable development indicators. These are given in its Sustainable Development Report 2002 and cover all three elements of sustainable development (social, economic and environmental performance). The environmental indicators developed by the FDF provide a basis on which to develop further, more detailed, indicators and are indicated in blue.

The indicators developed by the FDF are relative and have been normalised against 'tonnes of product produced per year'. This is the most appropriate normalisation factor given that the weight of food and drink products is known in most cases, and allows companies that produce a variety of products to aggregate individual product totals into an overall production total.

Normalising by 'tonnes of product produced per year' also allows benchmarking at both an intra- and an inter-company level. However, care should be taken when normalising data as the definition of what constitutes 'finished product' may vary across companies, especially when different stages of production are carried out on different sites.

The nature of the product and the strict hygiene requirements mean that process control is more widely adopted than in many other sectors. This allows process level KPIs to be developed by individual companies and monitored routinely to ensure correct product specification and operational efficiency.

The set of KPIs suggested for the sector are divided into:

Cross-sectoral indicators (packaging and transport) may also be applicable.

The shaded indicators are headline (aggregated) indicators. These are essential to obtain an overall understanding of site-level status and are also useful for environmental reporting. The other indicators are either useful alternatives or more disaggregated. They start to allow the more detailed understanding necessary for more targeted operational improvements. FDF sustainable development indicators are shown in blue.

You may also wish to develop your own indicators.

For a short summary of how KPIs relate to your sector, see:
EN463 Key environmental performance indicators in the food and drink sector.

Overfilling reduced following data analysis
C Shippam Ltd produces a range of spreadable products and canned ready meals at its Chichester site. The company analysed mean fill values and standard deviations to help it relate filling line effects to upstream causes of overfilling. Improvements have allowed Shippams to reduce the target fill weight and thus reduce overfill from 3% to less than 0.3%. See GG223 Preventing waste in production: industry examples, example 2.

Site level indicators of resource efficiency

  • Raw materials (use and re-use): The selection of primary raw materials is determined by the overall product requirements, but other materials (eg soil and pesticides/herbicides) connected with the source crop and auxiliary chemicals used to process the foodstuffs or for cleaning purposes can have a significant environmental impact. Due to the diversity of materials that may be used, only KPIs for total raw material use and cleaning chemicals are suggested. However, you may wish to develop indicators that monitor a specific raw material.
  • Product: The product-related KPIs suggested are generic and provide a basis on which further KPIs can be developed that are pertinent to the specific product being manufactured.
  • Water: The food and drink sector has traditionally consumed large quantities of water as an ingredient, cleaning agent and as a means of conveyance (ie water flumes). Reducing water consumption has a number of benefits including:
    • Cost savings from reduced quantities of water purchased and effluent disposed of
    • Reduced cost of on-site effluent treatment
    • Associated process benefits such as reduced energy requirements for heating and pumping water.

The suggested KPIs are basic indicators that can be used to monitor water consumption. The use of process level indicators requires the installation of water meters to monitor various stages of the production process. For more information on reducing water costs, see:
GG349 Water minimisation in the food and drink industry
WaterNet

Pollution indicators

These KPIs are typical 'end-of-pipe' measures suitable for an environmental report.

  • Air emissions - usually monitored to comply with consents/licences/permits. KPIs should be based on the site's key emissions. Typical air emissions might include particulates from grain handling and mixing dry powders, VOCs from frying activities and combustion-related emissions (SO2, NOx, CO) from boilers or ovens. CO2 equivalents derived from energy consumption are also a useful indicator.
  • Effluent. The discharge of effluent to sewer or surface water is consented by the appropriate bodies. This consent process requires the users to monitor effluent volumes and other parameters such as the concentration of heavy metals. Effluent from food and drink manufacturing sites is often heavily loaded with organic material as measured by biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Controlling the entry of solid and liquid wastes into the effluent is essential. Finding methods to reduce the loss of product into effluent and alternative disposal routes for high concentration waste streams are areas of interest for food and drink manufacturers. In addition to product loss, most manufacturers produce discharge boiler blowdown (containing corrosion inhibitors), air compressor condensate and vehicle washdown water. For information about reducing effluent costs, go to:
    WaterNet
  • Solid waste. This is another important issue for the sector, which produces large quantities of solid waste each year. The suggested KPIs provide a basis for the development of further indicators.

Contact the Envirowise Advice Line or visit NetRegs for up-to-date information on the environmental legislation affecting your company's operations.

Energy indicators

Energy consumption is significant, but varies considerably depending on the product. The suggested indicators are all 'site level' ones, but companies can use these as a basis for developing indicators for individual stages of their manufacturing process.

View Food and Drink sector: Energy use KPIs.

Contact the Carbon Trust for free advice and information on energy efficiency (including benchmarking).