Ahold Delhaize has stepped up its health and sustainability goals by setting new targets focussed on promoting healthier food choices, product transparency and eliminating food and plastic waste.
As part of the initiative, the retailer will continue to focus on offering more healthy food items in its private-label range by reformulating its products to cut sugar, salt and fat content.
By 2025, it aims to introduce science-based nutritional labelling systems, such as Nutri-Score, in all its own-brand products.
Transparent Supply Chain
The company also intends to offer more information about the origin of its private-label products to help customers make more informed choices.
It will share information on the sourcing of products, production methods, and general conditions under which the products are manufactured, the retailer said.
Furthermore, by incorporating the learnings from its own-brand seafood supply chains, the retailer aims to make its fresh fruit, vegetable, and meat supply chains completely transparent and sustainable.
President and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, Frans Muller, commented, "Food-related diseases and the impact of climate change are affecting billions of people, including those in our communities and our business. That is why we need to accelerate in the areas where we can create the most value."
Food Waste
Ahold Delhaize aims to reduce food waste from its operations to half by 2030, in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which calls for establishing a balance between food waste reduction and the sales of fresh and healthy products.
The retailer will use more effective replenishment systems, implement dynamic pricing based on sell-by date, and expand partnerships to repurpose unsold but safe food to achieve this goal, it said.
As a founding member of the '10x20x30' food waste initiative, the retailer has also partnered with 20 key suppliers to reduce food waste in its supply chains.
'Global Issues'
Muller added, "As an international food retailer, we are in a great position to help tackle these global issues together, with our customers and with our partners in the industry and across the supply chain, to create a healthier and more resilient food system. I am convinced that this will make our business stronger and more robust for the future."
By 2025, Ahold Delhaize has set the target to switch to 25% recycled materials for the packaging of its own-brand products.
It is already working towards a zero plastic waste goal from own-brand packaging by 2025, through packaging reduction and moving to fully recyclable, reusable, or compostable plastics, the retailer added.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
