Asda has become the latest supermarket to publish its food waste figures, as it also announced a big increase in food being redistributed to charity.
Revealing that 30,345 tonnes of food had been wasted in 2018, the supermarket giant said it was urging its suppliers to join the company in greater transparency.
The figures show that of Asda’s product categories, fruit and vegetables form nearly a quarter (23%) of all surplus food, with chilled food and dairy making up 16% each, and both bakery and ambient products accounting for 15%.
Asda’s publication of the amount of its food waste is another victory for The Grocer’s Waste Not Want Not campaign, which has urged companies to publish their figures and also to ramp up redistribution to food charities.
Wrap revealed this week that retailers publicly reporting their figures have reduced food waste by 17,000 tonnes, or £52m worth, at an average reduction of 12%. This has been achieved since 2012/2013, when Tesco became the first to start publishing figures.
Iceland told The Grocer it was also planning to publish its figures in the “very near future”.
Asda’s decision to publish comes after it committed to reducing food waste by 20% by 2025 and halving it by 2030, as well as increasing transparency around food waste.
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It said it had also urged its top 150 branded and own-label suppliers to join the company in “targeting, measuring and acting” on food waste, in line with the Food Waste Roadmap launched a year ago by Wrap and the IGD.
“As the first time it has publicly reported its figures, the supermarket takes a significant step towards ensuring customers are able to monitor Asda’s progress,” said Karen Todd, Asda senior manager for zero waste.
“Tackling food waste has to be a collaborative effort and we’ve been working hard, in partnership with our suppliers, colleagues and our customers, to meet our commitments to halve food waste by 2030 and make a positive difference to our communities.
“We think it’s really important that we share our food waste data publicly to allow others to understand our progress and I’m delighted we’ve been able to increase the amount of food reaching good causes.”
Wrap head of business collaboration Dr David Moon said: “Measuring food waste is fundamental to understanding why it occurs and identifying the priority actions to effectively reduce it. Taking action to publicly report for the first time demonstrates Asda’s long-term focus on tackling food waste in an efficient and transparent manner. As a Courtauld 2025 signatory (as well as being committed to the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap), Asda’s pledge to ‘Target, Measure, Act’ in collaboration with suppliers is a good indication of further progress that will be made.”
The development comes amid controversy over the lack of transparency from food companies over waste. Yesterday Tesco boss Dave Lewis called for the government to impose mandatory food waste reporting on the industry, after new figures revealed less than a third of companies signed up to the Roadmap are publishing their data.
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