Research and training charity IGD has been active in helping UK businesses turn the tide on food waste, as well as a number of other proactive sustainability programmes. Alan Hayes, head of technical programmes at IGD, explains. This article appeared in ESM Issue 6 2019.
From debates about reducing meat and dairy consumption to the recent Extinction Rebellion protests, the topic of sustainability is never far from our screens these days, and for our industry, the issue of food waste sits high on that sustainability agenda.
The food and drink that we consume forms the single biggest part of our sustainability impact and, thus, our contribution to climate change – bigger than the emissions created from travel and from the energy that we use at home.
Size Of The Problem
According to not-for-profit organisation WRAP, approximately one third of all the food produced in the world is lost or wasted. In fact, if food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest contributor of carbon emissions, after the US and China (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2015). Therefore, reducing food waste is very important in efforts to address climate change.
In September, we celebrated the first anniversary of IGD and WRAP’s ground-breaking Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, developed to help food and consumer goods companies adopt a consistent approach to target, measure and act on the food waste that they create.
The roadmap aims to help the UK achieve both the (UK) Courtauld Commitment 2025 targets and the (international) United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. The roadmap is hugely ambitious, and the UK was the first country in the world to set a nationwide plan of this size, scale and ambition.
One Year On
At the time of writing, 164 UK food businesses have already committed to target, measure and act on food waste, representing more than half of the UK food industry by turnover. Many are already providing evidence to WRAP of their work to reduce waste.
In addition, more companies than ever before are reporting their food waste data publicly. This shows what a difference can be made when industry works together, even in such a short time frame. There is still a great deal of work to do, but the progress to date has been significant.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of working on the roadmap has been its range and scope, across all areas of the food and grocery industry: retail, manufacturing, agriculture and primary production, hospitality and foodservice, and beyond.
IGD and WRAP have also been working closely with supportive organisations, such as trade bodies, which have been a vital route to accessing other companies that want to reduce their food waste.
Taking The Initiative
The UK government – through the Resources and Waste Strategy, launched in 2018 – has committed to introduce mandatory reporting for food waste, once it has completed its consultation. If mandatory reporting is introduced, those already committed to the roadmap would have a head start, as Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] has put the roadmap and its approach at the heart of its proposals for mandatory reporting.
In the meantime, we are seeing both manufacturers and retailers taking huge voluntary strides in terms of acting on food waste reduction, including some companies that are publishing their food waste data publicly.
Other recent developments across the food industry include a notable increase in the charitable redistribution of surplus edible food through companies such as FareShare.
Technology has also made a difference. Apps like Too Good To Go have helped to match up food due to be discarded with consumers looking for a bargain. Meanwhile, Olio has been a major success in the UK, and Karma has made a big impact with restaurants in the past year.
We have also seen the introduction of ‘wonky vegetables’ as a way of selling produce that, previously, was deemed not suitable for sale. Some promotions pair these products with recipe ideas, to show different ways of preparing and cooking a wide variety of food items.
Along the chain, manufacturers and suppliers have also been making use of a process known as ‘waste valorisation’, which means the reprocessing of waste or discarded materials to create a new product with its own market value.
This could be something simple, such as recycling old newspapers into tissues, or it could mean turning used cooking oil into energy. For example, Mexican company Biofase has even been making cutlery and straws from avocado stones.
Beyond Food Waste
We know from our research that shoppers are keen for change in many more areas. Some 84% of shoppers now see the environmental impacts of their food purchases as important (IGD ShopperVista, September 2019). When IGD carried out research into shoppers of the future, one of the key trends that emerged was their desire to be more socially conscious.
Influential programmes such as Blue Planet have inspired more than half of shoppers to make changes that support the environment (The Future of Foodservice Packaging, Footprint and BaxterStorey). Many businesses have been forced to think fast and adapt to these changes, with smart retailers and manufacturers finding new products that solve environmental problems before they become the next big news item.
Innovations in packaging are announced almost every week. From Carlsberg’s beer bottles made of paper to Halo’s compostable coffee capsules, businesses are thinking differently to meet changing consumer expectations. This is all happening without explicit government regulation, but, instead, is a response to new ways of thinking and increasing levels of competition in the field.
What Comes Next?
Our industry has made great strides in addressing the important issue of food waste in the last 12 months, but we are not complacent. Reducing food waste is a long-term journey, and we recognise there is more that we can, and will, be doing in the future.
Beyond food waste, if consumers continue to place an emphasis on sustainability and their environmental impact, then we believe that the retail and FMCG industries will be in a strong position to roll out many more innovative products and processes to meet this demand. There are huge opportunities for our industry to continue shaping the sustainability agenda in the months and years ahead.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Alan Hayes. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
