Italy’s Gruppo VéGé has partnered with Last Minute Sotto Casa (LMSC) to launch a smartphone app to tackle food waste.
LMSC is a portal that brings together, in real time, businesses that need to dispose of food products near their expiry dates and consumers interested in buying said products.
Consumers who use the service are also able to avail of significant discounts.
The initiative, which is part of the retailer’s corporate social responsibility and sustainability policy, is the first of its kind on a national scale, the retailer reported.
Discarded Food
According to Gruppo VéGé, about 1.3 billion tonnes of ‘perfectly edible’ food is discarded every year on a global level, equating to a value of $750 billion (€664 billion).
In Italy alone, more than ten million tonnes of food is wasted every year, equating to about €15 billion.
Gruppo VéGé is calling on the 32 companies within its group, and their respective sales networks, to raise awareness among customers about food waste and communicate locally the benefits of this new service.
At the same time, the LMSC portal will act a facilitator between individual retailers and consumers living in the area, making them aware of the products on offer.
The group aims to roll the project out nationwide in a short period of time.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
