Knorr reveals sustainability behind its sauce

AS PART OF Unilever Food Solutions’ Sustainable Living Plan, the company has announced that its range of Knorr Italian Sauces is made with sustainably-grown tomatoes.

 

Grown on its farms in Spain, Knorr’s sustainable tomatoes are just one of the ways the company plans to source 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020.

 

Leon Mills, category manager for Knorr sauces at Unilever Food Solutions, says: “Unilever uses three percent of the world’s volume of tomatoes, so it’s vital that we harvest our crops efficiently, effectively and ethically. From water and nutrients to soil fertility and pest management, we use up to 11 indicators to ensure the suppliers we’re working with are meeting our needs for sustainable produce.

 

“We always look to combine flavour with sustainable farming practices so we can deliver a great product to our customers. Nothing is left to chance when we harvest our tomatoes. From ensuring each plant is fed according to a nutrition plan to giving them just the right amounts of water, our tight processes mean we always produce high-quality, rich red tomatoes that taste great.”

 

With up to 4 million litres of water applied per hectare during the tomato crop season, Unilever Food Solutions has also installed drip irrigation technology to reduce the amount of water used by 20 percent – an efficiency system that increases its yield by a fifth.

 

Leon adds: “Once we’ve harvested our tomatoes, we ensure nothing is wasted. Just like we’d encourage chefs in the UK to use our ‘Wise up on Waste’ mobile app to reduce avoidable food waste, we too avoid wasted tomato skins and seeds that are separated from the juice by giving them to farmers for livestock feed.”