Ahold Delhaize has announced that it aims to halve food waste in its operations by 2030.
The new target builds on an earlier commitment, made by the retailer in 2016, to reduce food waste by 20% by 2020.
The move is in line with the World Resources Institute’s ‘10x20x30’ initiative, which encourages food retailers to halve their rates of food waste by 2030.
It was launched on 25 September during the Climate Week in New York, and Ahold Delhaize is one of the founding partners of the initiative.
The initiative will bring together 10 global food retailers, who will engage with 20 of their priority suppliers to achieve this goal.
'Improving Food Security'
President and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, Frans Muller, commented, "Reducing food waste in our stores and distribution chain is the right thing for our business, for the climate, and for improving food security.
"We join this exciting initiative to support momentum across our industry and create innovations for reducing waste in partnership with suppliers."
Partnerships and Innovations
The retail giant will accelerate partnerships and innovations in the areas of packaging, discounting, fresh quality analysis, and smart logistics to achieve its target.
In the past years, Ahold Delhaize brands in the US and Europe have implemented changes to reduce food waste in its operations.
Some of the measures include better technology for store ordering and developing partnerships with local communities to donate unsold food to people in need.
'Conserving Natural Resources'
"Wasting less food is critical to conserving natural resources and improving food security," said Megan Hellstedt, vice-president of sustainable retailing.
"We have identified improvements to make in our operations for the coming years and will ask our key suppliers to do the same."
© 2019 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.
