A survey, carried out by Finnish retailer K-Group in August this year, has found that around 70% of K-Plussa customers worry about food wastage.
The survey was part of a 'responsibility programme', aimed at reducing the food wastage generated by the group's stores by 10% by the year 2020.
Of around 500 respondents, 69%, worried most about the environmental impacts of food wastage, whereas 25% of the respondents were more worried about the money they wasted. 99% of respondents thought it was important for stores to donate food-aid and 87% considered this the best solution for wastage management in the trading sector.
55% of respondents said they relied on their senses to judge if food is still edible. Around one third said they occasionally threw products, past their 'best before' date, away - but 22% of the respondents admitted they didn't quite know the difference between ’best before’ and ’use by’ dates.
"Trading sector, producers and legislators should all work together to make labels on packaging more easily understood. This would help to reduce the amount of food wastage," said Matti Kalervo, Vice President of Kesko.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Martha Sparrius. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
