VanDrie Group supports LNV and VROM creating pilots sustainable production

Working together with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), the SenterNovem agency (Economic Affairs), and various food-producing businesses, the VanDrie Group, world market leader in veal, has begun a pilot to make research into more sustainable production across the entire production chain possible.

In addition to the initiative for the meat sector, plans are also being developed for other production chains in Food and Non-Food.

On 22 May 2008, Minister Jacqueline Cramer of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment will accept the proposals from the various production chains at the Museon in The Hague.

Despite the fact that the waste of valuable products in the meat sector production chain is of less significance than until recently was the case in the vegetable and fruit produce sector, the VanDrie Group has developed this initiative, together with the Ministries, to promote their vision on corporate social responsibility.

“Results can always be booked in areas of logistics and quality. Where work is done, there are always avoidable losses as well as the unavoidable ones,” says Henny Swinkels, Director of the VanDrie Group.

“It is a fact,” he states, "that the meat sector has a long record of being innovative in finding maximum use for the by-products of the slaughter process.” Not only because these products benefited humans by containing valuable nutrition, energy, protective substances and building blocks, but also as they provided a much-needed gastronomic alternative in the monotonous diet of yore.

And these products are still appreciated. This is how popular foods like sausages, pies, meal soups and smoked hams came to be.

This initiative is an extra step in creating quality by the VanDrie Group, that controls the whole production chain from Farmer to Frying Pan (van Boer tot Braadpan). Thanks to this transparent integration concept the company is progressive in the fields of animal welfare, hygiene and food safety. The meat is consumed in over 60 countries and meets international quality standards.

This initiative will foremost be geared towards developing a more proactive assessment and adjustment of the many influences on the method of veal production.

“This will benefit all parties and in that way we will create a more sustainable production process than we already had,” Mr Swinkels reports.

Cradle to Cradle is inspired by the book: Remaking The Way We Make Things.

The Dutch-language edition of this book was presented during the ‘Let’s Cradle’ conference at the Mecc in Maastricht on 1 November 2007.

The Ministries mentioned above have joined forces to increase sustainability in production chains.