In the past six months, Norwegian retail chain Meny has achieved an overall 34% reduction in food waste generated from bread.
The retail chain hopes to prevent the equivalent of over 1 million loaves of bread from being wasted in a year.
In Norway, hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread are thrown away every day, mostly at homes, but also in grocery stores.
In March of this year, Meny rolled out a ‘bread-winning’ project, allowing stores to bake the right amount of bread throughout the day with the help of automatic baking plans in each store, based on technology, algorithms and sales in real-time.
The project also includes honest customer communication related to smaller selections in the evening, recommendations for other bread favourites, and the opportunity to buy half-baked bread as an alternative.
Since March this year, the initiative has resulted in a 34% reduction in bread loss across the chain.
Food Waste Reduction
Mari Kristine Kasbo, category responsible bakery in Meny, said, “If we succeed in achieving a reduction of at least 30% over an entire year, it will be equivalent to one million saved bread, which in turn means 600 tonnes of reduced CO2 emissions.”
Meny aims to reduce its total food waste by 50% by 2025, with bread, fruit and vegetables among the most wasted items for the retailer.
Norway’s food waste amounts to at least 417,000 tonnes per year, corresponding to 78 kilograms per head, according to data from Matvett. It accounts for 1.26 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In 2019, the retail chain reported a 3.4% growth and welcomed 83 million customers through its doors.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Dayeeta Das. For more Fresh Produce news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
