Smithfield Foods released its 24th annual sustainability report, detailing 2025 achievements across food safety, animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and community impact. The meat processor achieved significant progress in food waste reduction, renewable energy development, sustainable packaging, and supply chain optimization while maintaining zero product recalls and exceeding multiple sustainability targets.
“Our team delivered meaningful progress against our sustainability targets in 2025, reinforcing our commitment to producing ‘Good food. Responsibly.®,'” said Shane Smith, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods. “From reducing food waste to investing in animal care and environmental stewardship, we are proud of the impact our teams are making across our operations and local communities.”
Food waste reduction exceeds targets
Smithfield achieved a 57% reduction in food loss and waste in U.S. manufacturing facilities, surpassing its 2030 goal five years ahead of schedule. The accomplishment reflects systemic changes in production planning, inventory management, process optimization, and waste stream diversion across manufacturing operations.
Food waste reduction in protein processing targets multiple streams including raw material trim optimization, improved forecasting preventing overproduction, process efficiency reducing yield losses, and diversion pathways for byproducts and food scraps. The 57% reduction demonstrates substantial progress toward circular economy approaches where processing byproducts find productive uses rather than requiring disposal.
Manufacturing waste streams diverted from landfills include meat processing byproducts converted to animal feed, collagen products, and pet food ingredients; bones processed into gelatin and broth concentrates; and organic materials composted or anaerobically digested for energy recovery. The cascading use of materials maximizes value extraction while reducing waste requiring disposal.
Sustainable packaging and petroleum reduction
Smithfield reduced virgin petroleum-based plastic use by more than 50% compared to its 2019 baseline while achieving 85% of materials in recycle-ready, reusable or compostable packaging. The dual progress addresses both virgin material consumption and end-of-life disposal pathways for packaging across the company’s portfolio.
Virgin petroleum reduction strategies include reformulation using recycled content plastics from post-consumer or post-industrial sources, material reduction through lightweight design changes, and substitution with alternative materials including plant-based plastics and compostable films. Recycled content sourcing creates demand for collected materials, supporting circular material flows and reducing dependency on fossil fuel extraction.
The 85% recycle-ready, reusable, or compostable packaging achievement covers primary packaging in direct contact with food and secondary packaging used for shipping and display. Design for recyclability requires compatibility with existing municipal recycling infrastructure, preventing inclusion of contaminant materials that compromise recycling processing.
Renewable energy and biogas development
Smithfield continued progress in producing clean, low-carbon renewable energy from on-farm methane capture through biogas joint ventures. Anaerobic digestion systems convert livestock waste into biogas fuel for electricity generation or pipeline injection, capturing methane that would otherwise contribute to atmospheric release.
Methane from livestock manure management represents significant climate impact given methane’s global warming potential approximately 28-34 times that of carbon dioxide over 100-year timeframe. Biogas capture prevents methane release while creating renewable energy production, delivering dual climate benefits through emission prevention and clean energy generation.
Biogas infrastructure requires capital investment in anaerobic digesters, gas capture systems, and either on-site electricity generation or pipeline interconnection for gas sales. Revenue models include electricity sales to utilities, renewable energy credits, and direct pipeline sales where interconnection infrastructure exists. The economics improve with methane price increases and renewable energy incentive programs.
Supply chain optimization and transportation emissions
Smithfield optimized transportation routes using Geographic Information System technology, eliminating more than 1 million miles in East Coast feed delivery and minimizing carbon footprint. GIS-based route optimization analyzes supply locations, delivery points, traffic patterns, and vehicle capacity to identify fuel-efficient routing.
Transportation emissions reduction through route optimization represents lower-cost decarbonization compared to fleet electrification or alternative fuels, delivering immediate emissions reductions and operational cost savings through reduced fuel consumption and driver hours. The 1 million mile reduction on feed delivery routes generates substantial fuel savings and avoided greenhouse gas emissions.
Feed represents significant supply chain component in livestock operations, requiring daily delivery of formulated diets across distributed farm locations. Optimization focusing on this high-volume route demonstrates supply chain opportunity for emissions reduction even without technology transitions.
Animal welfare compliance and food safety performance
Smithfield achieved compliance with ISO Technical Specification 34700, an internationally recognized standard for animal welfare management systems. The certification establishes documented procedures, monitoring systems, and continuous improvement processes addressing housing, handling, health, and slaughter practices across livestock operations.
ISO 34700 requires systematic approaches to animal welfare encompassing facility design, stocking density standards, environmental controls, health monitoring, and personnel training. Third-party certification verification demonstrates commitment beyond internal policies through independent assessment and ongoing surveillance audits.
Smithfield Foods operates as leading U.S. packaged meat and fresh pork producer with supply relationships to farmers and customers across North America. The 24-year sustainability reporting history demonstrates sustained commitment to environmental and social impact transparency alongside food safety and quality objectives.
For more information, visit smithfieldfoods.com/our-company/sustainability-report.
