Morrisons and Tesco have set a good example on food waste

Sir, The NFWI (National Federation of Women’s Institutes)’s Food Matters campaign aims to effect change in retail practices to reduce levels of food waste from farm to fork. One of the key pillars of this campaign is to urge supermarkets to be transparent about their own food waste figures.

Therefore WI members across the country will be pleased to hear that Morrisons has published its food waste figures for the first time.

We believe that if supermarkets are serious about achieving decisive progress in tackling food waste they need to be transparent with their food waste figures. It is important that all other retailers join Tesco and Morrisons in publishing their figures on an annual basis.

While this initial publication is a good start, Morrisons still has much further to go to increase transparency around food waste in its business.

First, it must commit to extending the scope of these figures to its suppliers. Second, it must ensure that it publishes these data on its website, in a format easily accessible to the public, not buried deeply within a CSR report. Third, it must move beyond providing merely a single headline figure and outline a breakdown of the figures.

Lynne Stubbings, chair, National Federation of Women’s Institutes