Tesco Ireland and Musgrave are among the major retail companies that have signed the Irish government's new Food Waste Charter, which aims to find a collaborative and long-term approach to tackling food waste across the sector.
Speaking at the signing, Denis Naughten, Ireland's minister for communications, climate action and environment, said the companies' involvement "highlights their commitment to collaborate in this area, and encourage others to sign the charter and work towards reducing food waste."
Tesco Ireland has been working on the issue of food waste for several years, having launched a surplus food donations programme in 2014, and becoming the first retailer in Ireland to publish its food waste data in September 2017.
"We are leading the industry in helping to stop good food from going to waste," said Andrew Yaxley, CEO of Tesco Ireland. "Transparency and measurement are essential for identifying food waste hotspots, and in turn tackling the causes of food waste."
"While we have made progress in tackling food waste, there is still much more we can do as an industry. We are delighted to sign up to the Food Waste Charter and we welcome the commitment by other retailers to publish their food waste data and look forward to working with the government and other Irish retailers to tackle this issue.”
'Positive Impact'
Meanwhile, Musgrave, which operates SuperValu supermarkets as well as Centra and Daybreak convenience stores across the country, said that the charter aligns with its own commitment to halving food surplus by 2030.
"With a business of our scale, we recognise our responsibility to make positive impact on the world around us," said Musgrave CEO Chris Martin.
"We look forward to engaging with the Government on this and other initiatives into the future, as we continue to embed important sustainability principles into our businesses, and to make further positive impact on the communities in which we operate.”
Other retailers that have signed the charter so far include Lidl, Aldi and BWG Group.
© 2018 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.
