Food Waste Free United | A Pre-Competitive Coalition for Circular Pig Feed
How we helped Food Waste Free United (Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling) bring retailers, producers, and animal feed companies together around a shared ambition: lower CO2 emissions, less food waste, and reduced land use in the Dutch pork value chain.
• Setting up a pre-competitive coalition with Dutch retailers, meat producers, and animal feed companies
• Facilitating collaboration between organizations with differing interests, roles, and perspectives
• Developing a shared language, common principles, and decision-making process
• Guiding the coalition toward concrete choices and next steps
Food Waste Free United (Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling) is committed to halving food waste in the Netherlands by 2030; (re)valuing residual and by-products through animal feed is a key route to achieving this. To accelerate progress, the Coalition for Circular Pig Feed was launched in September 2025: a unique, pre-competitive collaboration between three major Dutch retailers (Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Lidl), their producers (Van Loon Groep, Vion), and animal feed companies (Agrifirm, De Heus, Duynie, ForFarmers).
The shared question underpinning the Coalition was whether a higher share of residual and by-products in pig feed could contribute to less food waste, lower land use, and lower CO₂e emissions in the Dutch Beter Leven 1-star pork chain (a Dutch animal-welfare label). Although the parties held different interests and perspectives, they recognized that this question could not be solved by any single party alone: a step toward greater value chain collaboration was needed.
Our Approach
Been Management Consulting supported Food Waste Free United in setting up the coalition and facilitated the collaboration between the various parties from its launch in September 2025 through May 2026.
"Been clearly brought together the key points from the various stakeholders, resulting in a clear plan of action.”
Karin Roosen. Program Manager, Food Waste Free United
Step 1: Creating a Shared Ambition
Setting up the coalition and the developing the foundation for collaboration was made possible by jointly shaping a research question, objectives, and a definition of success. This created a foundation of trust and constructive collaboration.
Step 2: Facilitating Collaboration and Decision-Making
We have set up 4 multidisciplinary workstreams in which participants from the various parties worked together on:
1. Data: creating a common language by jointly establishing definitions and measurement methods.
2. Legislation & Requirements: mapping regulations and certification requirements to determine what is and isn’t permitted when scaling up the use of residual and by-products.
3. Scenario Analyses: using primary data and scenario simulations to examine the relationship between increasing the share of residual and by-products and CO2e emissions, land use, and pig feed costs, and exploring the effect of actively steering on CO2e emissions on these variables.
4. Decision-Making & Next Steps: translating insights into concrete choices and recommending next steps.
Results
The process resulted in a unique, pre-competitive collaboration between retailers, meat producers, and animal feed companies, generating shared insights and conclusions on different ways to reduce CO2 emissions in the Dutch pork value chain.
The first follow-up step has already been set in motion: an in-depth study into the data requirements needed to steer (the reduction of) CO2 emissions across the value chain.
"What this coalition showed is that once retailers, producers, and animal feed companies start seeking each other out in trust, the conversation shifts from who solves the problem to how we solve it together. That takes leadership from everyone at the table, not just one party.”
Food Waste Free United | A Pre-Competitive Coalition for Circular Pig Feed
How we helped Food Waste Free United (Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling) bring retailers, producers, and animal feed companies together around a shared ambition: lower CO2 emissions, less food waste, and reduced land use in the Dutch pork value chain.
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