Integrierte Vermeidung und Verminderung der Umweltverschmutzung

Chapter 1
Traditionally, in many European countries, the sector has not been heavily regulated by
environmental legislation. The impetus for the sector to improve its environmental performance
has therefore been based on efficiency improvements, e.g. maximising the utilisation of
materials, which subsequently leads to a minimisation of waste.
There is now a trend towards focusing on proactive environmental management systems, natural
resource conservation and the performance of waste minimisation techniques. To ensure
sustainability, the effects of the raw material supply, food processing, transport, distribution,
preparation, and disposal must be considered and controlled. Both primary production and
processing are critically dependent upon a reliable water supply and adequate water quality, in
conformity with legal requirements.
It is a challenge for the FDM sector to comply with the requirements of the Packaging Directive
94/62/EC by preventing the production of packaging waste, by re-use and recycling, as well as
recovering packaging waste. Packaging is essential for preservation and for protection against
handling, spoilage and contamination during production, distribution and sale. It is also a
marketing and sales tool and it conveys information like ingredients, nutrient content, cooking
instructions and storage information.
The efficient management of packaging and the minimisation of packaging waste is the
responsibility of the FDM sector as well as farmers, retailers and consumers. In this context, the
CEN standards on packaging, e.g. EN 13427:2000 [195, CEN, 2000], EN 13428:2000 [196,
CEN, 2000] and EN 13431:2000 [197, CEN, 2000], are very useful. These standards provide
guidelines to operators to enable them to comply with the essential requirements laid down by
the Packaging Directive 94/62/EC. They offer the required flexibility to encourage innovation
and enable packaging to be adapted to consumer needs. They can also be incorporated into the
environmental and quality management systems within companies.
EMSs involve developing policies and guidelines, establishing objectives and programmes,
allocating environmental responsibilities within an organisational structure, training and
communication activities, operational control and conducting surveys and audits.
Many FDM companies have implemented an EMS and some are certified or in the process of
being certified to ISO 14001 or the EU-15 Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). In
2003, the FDM sector had the highest number of EMAS registered organisations in any sector
and represented 9 % of all EMAS registered organisations (for further information see
Section 4.1.1).
1.7.1 Key environmental issues
Water consumption is one of the key environmental issues for the FDM sector. Most of the
water which is not used as an ingredient, ultimately appears in the waste water stream.
Typically, untreated FDM waste water is high in both COD and BOD. Levels can be
10 - 100 times higher than in domestic waste water. The SS concentration varies from negligible
to as high as 120000 mg/l. Untreated waste water from some sectors, e.g. meat, fish, dairy and
vegetable oil production, contains high concentrations of FOG.
The main air pollutants from FDM processes are dust, VOCs and odour. Refrigerants containing
ammonia and halogen may be accidentally released. Odour is a local problem either related to
the process or to the storage of raw materials, by-products or waste.
Noise may also be a problem for some installations, typically associated with vehicle
movements and refrigeration.
The solid output from FDM installations is composed of by-products, co-products and waste.
The main sources of solid output are spillage, leakage, overflow, defects/returned products,
inherent loss, retained material that cannot freely drain to the next stage in the process and heat
deposited waste.
6 January 2006 RHC/EIPPCB/FDM_BREF_FINAL