Feeding the Future

Need for sustainability

We live in an age where pet owners have easy access to information and opinion about brands, pet foods and ingredients. Novel ingredients such as insect protein have entered the market, partly driven by novelty, but mostly by sustainability. A growing awareness of the pressure we put on our planet’s resources has increased consumers’ interest in feeding their pet a sustainable, ethical and traceable food.

Suppliers to the pet food industry have a responsibility to manufacture nutritionally sound and legally compliant materials, whilst meeting customer demands. Trouw Nutrition takes this seriously: it is part of Nutreco, whose mission is ‘Feeding the Future’ – to feed our growing population (including their pets) in a sustainable way for generations to come.

Responsible sourcing

Trouw Nutrition is a member of SEDEX, an indication of its commitment to continuous improvement of the ethical performance in its supply chain. The company sources its raw materials from suppliers who have adopted its Supplier Code of Conduct, and therefore share its commitment to sustainability.

What does this entail? As a minimum, suppliers must be compliant with relevant environmental laws and regulations, but are strongly encouraged to go further. They must use environmental resources in an efficient and sustainable way and strive to minimise their impact on biodiversity, climate change and water scarcity, at the same time ensuring that labour employment procedures are applied in an ethical manner.

Traceability

Following the horsemeat scandal of five years ago, traceability continues to be high on the agenda of pet owners. The company also oversees a bidirectional audit trail for its pet premixes, covering the materials coming in and the premixes going out.

Each of its raw materials and suppliers are separately risk assessed prior to an audit and testing programme being assigned. That way, any sustainability issues throughout the supply chain can be identified and minimised, and material quality guaranteed.

Sustainable partnerships

Furthermore, as a group, Nutreco actively involves employees and stakeholders in its mission of ‘Feeding the Future’. ‘We welcome open dialogue with our suppliers and raise the standards within the industry by working towards a culture of continuous improvement,’ it says.

Local operations have control programmes in place to protect the surrounding environment and are COMAH accredited. Active efforts are also underway, in consultation with customers, to concentrate pet premixes as part of a project to reduce volume and transport.

Nutreco’s sustainability programme – Nuterra

Guiding all of this is Nuterra®, which is the Nutreco group’s sustainability programme, and is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Recognised as among the leaders in driving a more sustainable industry, Nutreco has been named one of ten finalists for the ‘edie Sustainability Leaders Awards 2019’ in the UK.

Supplying superfoods, plant-based proteins and feed additives, Trouw Nutrition and its parent company Nutreco, are raising the sustainability standards in the industry and furthering their mission of ‘Feeding the Future’.