Bob’s Red Mill, the first manufacturer to sign onto the PCFWC to cut food waste in half by 2030, has partnered with the Pacific Waste Food Waste Commitment and TripleWin Advisory, where it developed an employee engagement campaign to reduce food waste in its whole grain milling and packaging facility in Milwaukie, Oregon. With the help of the partners, Bob’s hosted a Food Waste Reduction Challenge at the mill and asked for ideas from employees on how to reduce food waste from milling to packaging, to innovation, receiving, quality, and also reducing its Whole Grain Restaurant and Store. 

Employees submitted a total of 176 food waste reduction ideas. Ultimately, one of these ideas was implemented requiring a change to a whole grain packaging line. The result: a more than 70% reduction in wasted food per pound of food produced. While the results were beyond what Bob’s Red Mill imagined, this is just the beginning of their food waste reduction journey. The company has a goal of cutting its food waste in half by 2030 and as a result of this recent company challenge, it has formed a food waste reduction team and have categorized remaining ideas to potentially implement in the future.

Learn more about Bob’s Food Reduction Employee Challenge and the results in a new case study.