Tesco boss Dave Lewis this week threw down the gauntlet to rivals to join its commitment to banish food waste from stores and distribution centres, saying he wanted a situation where no staff ever had to throw away edible produce.
This week Tesco launched plans to automatically redirect up to 30,000 tonnes a year from its stores and distribution centres to charities.
However, The Grocer understands early talks have already taken place with the charities involved and other retailers about the possibility of the technology being rolled out across the entire UK supermarket sector.
Experts predict this could save in the region of 120,000 tonnes a year, more than 10 times the amount currently going to the biggest redistribution charity FareShare.
Tesco has partnered with FareShare and Irish social enterprise FoodCloud, having trialled a new app at stores in Ireland, which automatically alerts charities to daily store level availability of surplus food that would otherwise be thrown out for passing its sell-by date.
The London Housing Trust, one of the first charities to take part, said it had already seen a massive spike in aid just in the three weeks that the scheme has been trialled at Tesco’s Surrey Quays store, and it will now be extended to 10 stores in London, Glasgow, Belfast and Liverpool, with plans for a national rollout.
“I see this as a major issue facing the industry and we want to lead,” Lewis told The Grocer. “The amount of food is a small number in terms of the proportion of the overall scale of food waste, but it’s also a very big number because of our size and 30,000 tonnes of food that could have been eaten is still a huge figure. We think we have the potential to scale this up and can make this work and then there is the opportunity for other retailers to come on board.”
Tesco, which wasted a further 24,000 tonnes of food that was damaged in its stores and DCs, is the only UK supermarket to publish its individual food waste figures, and Lewis said he wanted it to be part of his “legacy” to eradicate all edible waste at Tesco. “Whether other retailers start to publish their figures or not we’re going to do it,” he said. “It’s more than a year ago that we called a halt to bogofs on fruit & veg and I don’t think people appreciate that.
“When I leave Tesco as part of my legacy I want us to be a business which gives something back to society.
“I know what it must feel like for our staff when they are throwing away good food and if we crack this they will never have to do it again.” FareShare chief executive, Lindsay Boswell said this week’s move by Tesco could transform the issue of food waste redirection. “Just look at the figures - Tesco wasted 55,000 tonnes in DCs and at store level, of which there was a potential 30,000 that could have been eaten,” he said. “Last year our entire donations were under 10,000 of food, full stop.”
“The potential for really scaling up that operation is truly enormous although we must get away from the fact that this is waste at store and DC level and does not include the vast amount of food wasted in the supply chain.”
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