Food has been one of the main courses of Lynn's economy for generations.

As well as filling our plates, one of the industry's big players is looking towards a more sustainable future.

Greenyard Frozen, near the Hardwick Roundabout, is one of 38 centres the fresh to frozen food firm operates across Europe, employing 9,000 people.

Its future plans including using less water on the site, which prepares frozen fruit and veg for the nation's supermarket chains from produce harvested across the Fens.

The firm is also committing to cut its carbon footprint and reduce food waste, by investing in new chilled stores and working with charity Fareshare to divert food to community groups.

Since linking up with Fareshare, the business has managed to divert more that 53 tonnes of berries to community groups and charities and enough frozen vegetables for every person in the UK to have one day’s worth of their five-a-day.

North West Norfolk MP James Wild heard in more detail about the plans during a fact-finding tour of the plant, which is about to begin processing this year's pea harvest.

Legumes have to be frozen within 90 minutes of leaving the field, meaning the factory will be operating at full capacity against the clock.

Mr Wild said afterwards: "Greenyard Frozen’s commitment to deliver quality products while reducing the environmental impact of its operations demonstrates that a focus on sustainability make business sense.

"It was particularly encouraging to hear how the firms employees are an important source of ideas on how to do more in this area including on reducing food waste. Its innovative partnership with FareShare has helped ensure that a huge amount of food ended up on people’s plates rather than being disposed of.”

Greenyard commercial director Brendan Legrove said: “It was a pleasure to welcome James to our site and to show him what we do here at Greenyard Frozen. We took the opportunity to show him round a new part of our factory which we have almost finished building in response to growing demand for our frozen fruit and vegetable products.

"We also shared with James our current environmental sustainability projects and brought him up to speed on our work with Fareshare so that he could appreciate some of the good work we do in our local community.”