Hanssens Catering is a catering company specializing in the production of hot meals. These meals are freshly prepared daily and delivered hot (> 60°C), primarily to schools. The company, NV Frans Hanssens, operates besides the newly built production site in Wevelgem, also in Oosterzele and Groot-Bijgaarden. Collectively, the three locations prepare approximately 50,000 meals daily.

Witteveen+Bos was allowed to conduct water scans for both the Welvegem and Dilbeek sites. During the water scans, it quickly became apparent that Hanssens (especially at the new site in Wevelgem) was already implementing many measures to save water. However, our experts were still able to suggest some areas for improvement. Now, approximately a year after the water scans, Hanssens has implemented a large number of measures to further reduce water consumption:

• A procedure was established to prevent calamities, thereby avoiding unnecessary loss in 2023.
• Multiple old industrial dishwashers were replaced with new, more efficient models.
• At both sites, the company achieved an increase in the number of meals produced without an increase in water consumption for daily cleaning of production areas and machines.
• At the Dilbeek site, an RO (Reverse Osmosis) installation was installed as pretreatment for the water for the steam boiler. This achieves a (limited) water saving and energy saving (by reducing blowdown from the steam boiler).
• The use of rainwater for irrigating outdoor plants was reduced.

Thanks to these measures, Hanssens Catering managed to achieve a total water savings of 713 m³ of tap water per year across the two sites. This has made the production process even more efficient in terms of water usage, which is nicely reflected in the specific water consumption. In Wevelgem, it decreased from 3.0 liters per meal to 2.6 liters per meal, and in Dilbeek, it even dropped from 3.5 liters per meal to 2.5 liters per meal.