Supermarket bosses from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S, along with leading food manufacturing leaders, have launched a major new initiative which they hope will transform the way the industry deals with food surplus.
Retailers, producers and other companies across the food supply chain have formed a new national organisation to redistribute thousands more tonnes of edible surplus to people suffering from food poverty.
They aim to work on a non-competitive basis to ramp up help for thousands of charities across the UK, whilst also helping to prevent edible food going to anaerobic digestion or landfill.
The move comes a year after companies agreed to co-operate on tackling food waste and redistribution under the Coronation Food Project, launched by King Charles. Food redistribution leaders at the time told The Grocer they believed the new body would provide tens of millions more meals to vulnerable people.
Called Alliance Food Sourcing, and funded initially by 15 companies including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Greencore and 2 Sisters, it will sit within the IGD and oversee a new way of redistributing surplus involving cooperation across supply chains, involving retailers, manufacturers, logistics providers and others across the food and drink sector.
Bosses from companies leading the project, including M&S Food MD Alex Freudmann, Tesco UK CEO Matthew Barnes, Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts, Greencore CEO Dalton Philips and 2 Sisters Food Group owner Ranjit Singh Boparan, are today launching an appeal in The Grocer for more companies across the food industry to become involved.
The food companies said they had identified “pioneering” new ways to scale up food redistribution with the aim of reusing surplus closer to the start of the food chain, focusing especially on farms and in factories, where there was great underutilised potential.
The operation will include using surplus raw ingredients as well as partially processed and prepared food, and also cover underweight, broken or damaged products that are fit to be redistributed. Food set to be redistributed on an industrial scale includes pasta and sauces. Other products such as yoghurts will be given further processing before going to charities, while ingredients donated by multiple companies will go to make soup.
Alliance Food Sourcing is set to co-ordinate and scale up activity with food industry consultant Nicola Robinson, a former health, beauty and wellness director at Tesco and previously commercial director at Kettle Foods. Robinson has been appointed as the director of the new body.
She will head up a steering board made up of retailers, manufacturers and food redistribution charities, and also be supported by operational improvement experts Newton, Boston Consulting Group and law firm Slaughter & May.
Today’s announcement comes with food companies reporting major progress since the launch of the King’s initiative 12 months ago.
Working with charities FareShare and the Felix Project, along with leaders from across the food industry, the Coronation Food Project has already saved an additional 940 tonnes of surplus food – equivalent to 2.24 million meal portions.
Meanwhile, £15m has been raised to design, build and run a network of up to 10 Coronation Food Hubs in the UK with the King opening the first two, one in person and one virtually, today.
The Coronation Food Project has already given £715,000 in community food grants to 33 organisations across the UK.
However, FareShare special advisor and former CEO George Wright said the launch of the new body under the IGD had the potential to permanently transform the way the industry tackles the surge of food waste and hunger.
“To have the CEOs of the major supermarkets and manufacturers coming together in a place like the UK where we’re normally competing on everything is a massive achievement,” Wright said.
“But this isn’t just some charter, it’s not just words. This is actual companies investing in a new system which will change everything.
“The industry is bringing in experts and working in collaboration across supply chains in a way that has never been done before to scale up food redistribution.”
The fomer M&S and Tesco veteran added: “Charities simply couldn’t have done this. We’re now asking everyone in the industry to get involved. We want to get tens of millions of meals from this initiative but we don’t want it coming from a few companies. If the industry joins in across the board, we can move mountains.”
AFS director Robinson said: “With over 25 years in the food, drink and retail industry I know first-hand the opportunity there is to rescue more food further up the supply chain and put it to good use tackling food insecurity.
“We can do this better and faster if we identify it sooner and combine our efforts. I’m excited to be putting my experience and network to work, by bringing our passionate and committed community together with real time IT solutions, to make an even bigger difference.”
IGD CEO Sarah Bradbury added: “There are some things we will only fully achieve when we work in partnership, across the food system.
“The collective effort we see is already making a huge difference. And if everyone in the industry joins this new alliance, the impact would be monumental, delivering social and environmental benefits for years to come.”
No comments yet