Has your company published an environmental policy?
Yes. ABF's environmental policy is published on this web site and is part of the Corporate Citizenship section of the Annual Report.
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What is ABF doing to reduce its impact on the environment?
The key aspect for us is to make sure that we use the minimal amount of energy to run our operations and to maximise our energy efficiency. In addition, we aim to ensure our emissions do not have an unacceptable environmental impact, the amount of packaging used for our products is minimised and that products are transported efficiently to minimise fuel usage.
We are carrying out carbon footprinting of some of our key products so that we can pinpoint our main energy usage in the lifecycle of our bread, sugar and other products and highlight opportunities for energy reduction. ABF is one of the leaders of carbon footprinting in the agri-food sectors.
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Does ABF use palm oil?
The group uses a very small quantity of palm oil, accounting for approximately 0.06% of the total global annual supply, understood to be 45 million tonnes.
Some of our businesses operate sustainable palm oil policies and are purchasing Certified Sustainable palm oil and Green Palm certificates. In 2010, we introduced a group wide commitment that all of our businesses would use only Certified Sustainable palm oil, or Identity Preserved palm oil, by 2015 (provided that supply is available).
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What ingredients does the group make and how much is used internally by ABF companies?
ABF produces a range of ingredients but molasses from British Sugar are supplied to AB Mauri and ABF Ingredients as raw materials for yeast and yeast extracts production. Bakery enzymes, dough conditioners and improvers are supplied by our ingredients businesses to GWF Baking and Allied Bakeries.
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What targets do you have for reducing omissions?
ABF has registered for the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) which is a new carbon emissions trading scheme which applies to large, but non-energy- intensive, businesses and we estimate that the CRC applies to 85% of the energy used in our UK businesses.
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Does your company operate a programme for improving water usage? What targets has your company set to improve water efficiency?
It is ABF’s policy that our operating companies must use all natural resources, including water, efficiently so that we are not wasteful. Group companies continually review water consumption and set themselves improvement targets as appropriate.
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Does your company actively source locally produced ingredients?
Yes, where this is appropriate to the product group. In the case of our sugar operations in England, Poland, Africa and China, raw materials are purchased from as close to the processing factory as is possible. With regard to cereals purchased, ABF has actively worked to reduce dependence on imported varieties of wheat for bread making, through advice to growers on variety selection. It purchases around 15% of the UK crop.
In the case of some foods such as tea and rice however, local purchase is impossible.
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Does ABF test any products on animals?
Whilst none of our consumer food companies make use of animal testing, a small number of our businesses operate in areas where there is a legal requirement to test on animals. In these cases we do only what is necessary to obey the law.
The only other occasion when ABF is involved in animal testing is in the occasional provision of anti-bodies for research purposes. It is our policy to keep these tests to the absolute minimum and then in all cases they are carried out by third parties, according to OECD guidelines and carefully monitored by ABF.
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What is your position on GM Foods?
None of our UK grocery products contain GM’s or ingredients derived from GM sources. All crop-derived products and ingredients supplied by our businesses to the UK grocery trade are obtained from non-genetically modified sources where we have complete control of the supply chain.
With other products involving ingredients where genetically modified varieties exist, our businesses have worked closely with approved third-party suppliers to secure future supply sourced from non-genetically modified, identity preserved material. The supply chain in this area is closely monitored to check compliance.
All new ingredients are assessed for compliance with the above statements and it is our aim to meet any existing and future legislation on traceability and labelling.
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