The food manufacturing industry across the United States includes a large number of large and small companies, and the growing population ensures strong demand. In the 2008 recession, the industry was hardly affected, but it has huge untapped potential in terms of saving money and preventing pollution and regulatory compliance costs.
The food manufacturing industry employs millions of people and injects billions of dollars into the economy. The industry consists of several sub-sectors, sometimes referred to by their NAICS codes. These industries range from grain or oilseed processing to seafood production. However, they all involve the processing of various raw foods into edible consumer products.
Through national key areas, the Environmental Protection Agency’s pollution prevention plan focuses on possible solutions that chemical companies can use to improve their environmental performance.
Number of food manufacturing sub-organizations with 10 or more full-time employees
1. Food is part of the economy
Among the nine sub-sectors of the food manufacturing industry, the most prominent are meat, grain or oilseed processing and dairy products, which contribute 56.1% of the industry’s food manufacturing shipments, or food processing companies’ shipments The dollar value of the goods.
They contribute the most to the economic value of the industry, even though they have fewer facilities than other sub-sectors, because some large companies, such as Tyson Foods, dominate these industries. In contrast, sub-sectors such as bakeries and tortilla manufacturers are made up of many smaller companies.
Manufacturing facilities are concentrated in areas with the largest industrial scale in the country. For example, there are many dairy farms in Wisconsin, resulting in a very concentrated dairy farm production facilities there.
2. Food manufacturing provides opportunities to prevent contamination
The process of food production involves toxic chemicals, and companies release these chemicals into the environment through a variety of ways. The US Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Substances Release Inventory (TRI) reports the emissions of food manufacturers in various sub-sectors.
The food manufacturing industry is the sixth largest contributor to the TRI report, after metal mining, power facilities, chemical manufacturing, primary metals and paper manufacturing.
However, compared with other industries, the food manufacturing industry lags behind other industries in reducing chemical emissions. This sector has the opportunity to strengthen its pollution prevention activities, enabling the industry to reduce emissions at a rate comparable to all other manufacturing industries. Improving and preventing leakage and process modifications are just a few examples that can help reduce leakage in the oil and gas industry.
3. Environmental impact data points to milling and meat
As shown in the chart below, meat and grain/oilseed processing facilities contribute the most in the food manufacturing sub-sector. By implementing pollution prevention, these two sub-sectors can reduce emissions and possibly save money.
For example, some slaughterhouses have improved their sewage treatment plants to separate solids and process them into finished products, while other facilities simply improved their equipment to reduce emissions.
To identify opportunities in these specific industries, companies can use the TRI Pollution Prevention (P2) tool to find examples of pollution prevention activities in other facilities. All sub-sectors of the food manufacturing industry have ample opportunities to implement pollution prevention programs. The previous P2 impact column detailed how companies use TRI P2 data to identify potential projects.
4. Most of the released are nitrate compounds, n-hexane and ammonia
The figure below shows that the most emitted chemicals are nitrate compounds, n-hexane and ammonia, which have been the number one chemicals emitted by industry in recent years.
Nitrate compounds are mainly discharged from the meat industry through solid waste water from the slaughter process. Hexane is mainly released in the grain or oilseed processing industry through air emissions generated during the refining of soybeans and other raw materials.
Ammonia is mainly found in the meat industry, released in the air, and comes from hygiene practices. Over time, the current release rate is relatively stable, but the release of these major chemicals is high. The only exception is nitrate compounds, during which time their release decreased by 16%.
Companies in these sub-sectors should look for pollution prevention solutions related to these major chemicals in order to reduce their most common emissions. For example, companies can use supercritical carbon dioxide in n-hexane for petroleum production, or install overflow alarms or automatic shut-off valves to prevent emissions when the ammonia concentration is too high.
