Tesco PLC/YouTubeDecreasing food waste in supermarkets is a major concern within the food industry at present, and thankfully it is being addressed.
First ASDA announced its ‘wonky veg boxes’ to prevent ugly food being left to rot on the shelves, now Tesco is getting in on the act.
The supermarket giant has announced its intention to make sure all usable food waste from its stores is donated to charities and community groups by 2017.
The concept has already been rolled out in 15 cities and regions, and it is going down a treat.
It is undeniable Tesco had to act, and according to their pilot scheme they’ve already saved 22 tonnes of food by providing roughly 50,000 meals instead.
The store said via LinkedIn:
Our target is to have rolled Community Food Connection out to all large Tesco stores – numbering over 800 – by the end of 2016, with all stores covered by the end of 2017.
Tesco is tackling #FoodWaste from its own operations to customers’ homes. Read more here: https://t.co/28zTNQoprE pic.twitter.com/lquLakXTqp
— Tesco News (@tesconews) March 11, 2016
Chief executive of FareShare, Lindsay Boswell, is reported by SBTV as saying:
We are delighted to be offering our store level solution in partnership with Tesco who are demonstrating real leadership in tackling food surplus.
FareShare FoodCloud is a natural extension of our work together which has already provided nine million meals to help feed vulnerable people.
Tesco will also launch its own initiative to convince customers to purchase ugly vegetables via the ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ range.
It would be easy to be cynical and suggest Tesco are just jumping on a bandwagon, but it is an important bandwagon and the chain is making efforts to give it even more momentum.
It can only be viewed as a good thing.
