Dave Lewis, CEO of UK supermarket giant Tesco, has said that the company plans to ensure that no food fit for human consumption will be passed as waste by February 2018.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Lewis said that the retailer’s new food waste initiatives will be implemented at all of its 2,654 stores across the UK.
“Last year we sold ten million tonnes of food to the British public,” said Lewis.
“But even if our waste is just 0.7% of the food, that’s still 70,000 tonnes of food. And so long as that food is fit for human consumption I’d much prefer it to go to people than animal feed or fuel.”
The supermarket’s new goal is to redistribute all of its unsold edible food to those who need it, such as homeless shelters, food banks, and charities, in partnership with food charity organisation Fareshare.
“Food waste has been talked about for years, but if Tesco can make this work, with all of our different stores across the country, then why can’t everybody,” Lewis added.
Food Waste Progress
In September, Lewis announced that the retailer had established partnership agreements with 24 of its largest food suppliers, with the aim of halving food waste by 2030.
The suppliers, who collectively represent over £17 billion worth of Tesco sales, will publish food waste data for their own operations within 12 months, and have committed to reducing food waste in their supply chains, as well as making it easier for consumers to reduce waste at home.
Tesco has been publishing its own food waste data for its UK operations for the past four years, and has now committed to doing the same for its businesses in the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary.
The retailer said that this move builds on the company's 'commitment to transparency', which will also help to reduce waste further in the future.
“In retail there will always be some surplus food, because no matter how sophisticated the ordering systems are it will be impossible to perfectly match the supply and demand for every one of our shops, 365 days a year, when there’s so much volatility,” Lewis told the Telegraph.
However, Tesco has introduced a number of initiatives in its stores this year in a bid to cut down on waste.
The retailer has reduced its number of ‘buy one get one free’ offers, in order to encourage customers to only buy as much food as they need, as well as selling fresh produce with aesthetic issues that are still perfectly edible, such as wonky veg, green satsumas and clementines, frost-ring apples, and smaller avocados that otherwise would have been rejected by growers.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
