Sainsburys reveals success of food waste reduction plan

The UK’s second largest grocery retailer, Sainsbury’s has released its corporate food surplus and food waste data as part of its ongoing commitment to reduce food waste overall in the UK.

The group’s charitable food donation partnerships have increased dramatically in the last year and now stand at over 1,000, which means more food is getting to those who need it most.

The surplus food the firm converts to animal feed has seen a slight increase of 0.8%, the food waste that is converted to energy has gone down by 9.4% as it continues to improve operational efficiency throughout the supply chain. This builds on the work Sainsbury’s has done since 2013, when it became the first retailer to send zero waste to landfill.

CEO Mike Coupe commented, “Our values have been at the core of what we do at Sainsbury’s since 1869 and they remain central to us today.

“Food waste is an issue where Sainsbury’s wants to continue to make an impact. We have been working hard over the past few years to tackle food waste in our business and ensure as much food as possible is redistributed to those who need it – we are proud of the development of more than 1,000 Food Donation Partnerships with local charities. As well as looking at our own business, at the start of this year, we also launched our £10 million Waste less, Save more campaign to help households waste less and save more in their homes.

“Over the last year we have reduced total levels of unsold food, which has been achieved through a number of measures including sourcing more of our produce direct from growers and farmers and using improvements in technology. This is on the back of us being the first grocery retailer to achieve zero operational waste to landfill.

“Our focus is to continue to look at food waste in our own business – as well as ensure as much food as possible is redistributed to charity via Food Donation Partnerships. We know we can’t do it on our own – so we seek to work in partnership with others in the grocery, food and hospitality industries to have the impact that we all want to see.”