McCain Foods releases 2025 Global Sustainability Report and announces its third Farm of the Future

McCain Foods has released its 2025 Global Sustainability Report, sharing progress toward its sustainability commitments with the completion of a key pledge made in 2021, and outlines refreshed sustainability targets to 2030.

McCain continues to advance progress towards implementing regenerative agriculture across all acreage used to grow potatoes for McCain by 2030. As part of this work, McCain has completed a major milestone: delivering on its effort to establish three Farms of the Future across diverse growing regions by 2025. McCain’s Farm of the Future UK, located on a 202-hectare site in North Yorkshire, and developed in partnership with the University of Leeds, is the company’s third commercial-scale research and innovation site to trial regenerative agriculture practices.
 

Farm of the Future UK expands regenerative agriculture trials

As part of McCain’s global Farms of the Future initiative, the new site will apply and advance practices such as controlled traffic farming, year-round soil cover, and biodiversity building. It will also be the first Farm of the Future location to pilot a circular nutrient system, developed in partnership with the University of Leeds National Pig Centre, using pig manure to enrich soils, reduce waste, and demonstrate how mixed farming systems aim to improve soil health and biodiversity while helping to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Max Koeune, President and CEO at McCain Foods:

"Farm of the Future UK marks an important step in how we are scaling regenerative agriculture across our global Farms of the Future effort. Each site helps us test real solutions with farmers, understand what works, and share that knowledge across our grower network. This is how we strengthen the resilience of our farms, support our partners, and build a more sustainable food system for the long term."

2030 commitments focus on climate, nature and resilience

McCain continues to deepen its focus on climate resilience, resource efficient operations and community impact. With the culmination of a subset of targets set for 2025, the report outlines strengthened 2030 commitments reinforcing the company’s future-focused ambitions. This includes updated SBTi targets which align with the latest climate science, and a reinforcement of focus on nature and human rights.

Charlie Angelakos, Vice President, External Affairs and Sustainability at McCain Foods:

"We are pleased with our progress, with nearly 70% of our global acreage onboarded to McCain’s Regenerative Agriculture Framework, reducing our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 28% since 2017 and supporting over 18,000 vulnerable farmers and families through community development programmes since 2018. As we look to 2030 and beyond, we recognize the years ahead will bring challenges and the journey will not be easy. We must build on our lessons learned as well as deep partnership and collaboration with our partners across the value chain to ensure we deliver sustainable progress and create a resilient business."

Key highlights from the 2025 Summary Report

Smart and Sustainable Farming

• 44% of global acreage "Engaged" or higher and 69% "Onboarded" on McCain’s Regenerative Agriculture Framework
• 30 Innovation Farms for regenerative agriculture established globally
• Announcement of third Farm of the Future in Great Britain

Resource-Efficient Operations

• 28% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions since 2017
• 60% of total electrical energy consumption from renewable electricity
• 98% of packaging designed to be recyclable

Good Food

• 98% of McCain-owned facilities and 99% of tier 1 ingredient supplier facilities achieved GFSI-recognized certification
• 6% reduction in the sales-weighted average sodium in McCain branded appetizer products since 2018
• 97% compliance across the portfolio with McCain’s Global Nutrition Policy

Thriving Communities

• 4 million meals donated to food banks and NGOs in 2025, contributing to a total of 226.7 million meals donated since 2017
• 28,484 hours of employee volunteering completed, for a total of 76,477 volunteer hours since 2018
• 4,488 vulnerable farmers and families supported in 2025, bringing the total supported since 2018 to 18,459