Tesco admits wasting 30,000 tonnes of food in six months
For the first time, supermarket Tesco has published its own figures on food waste with surprising results.
By Dave Lancaster |11:49 21 October 2013
Supermarket giant Tesco has revealed its own figures on how much of its produce is wasted which sees that two thirds of its salad items, four in every 10 apples and roughly half its bakery items are left uneaten.
In all, nearly 30,000 tonnes of food was binned off in the first six months of the year.
As a result, Tesco will be introducing measures to develop promotions for smaller bags of salad in order to reduce wastage.
The figures came after the retailer came up with a "footprint" for their items by tracking their 25 best-selling products and merging the information with data from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap).
It was also revealed that the customers themselves waste the products they have purchased. For example, a fifth of all bananas went uneaten with one in 10 of those thrown away by the customers. Customers also throw out around a third of the store's salads themselves.
Tesco are looking to remove "display until" labels from food and cut down on the amount of bread on display in their bakeries while working with suppliers to extend the life of items. For example, Tesco will work with apple growers to reduce pests and disease.
The store claims that they intend to educate consumers on how to use leftover bread and how to properly store fruit.
Matt Simister, Tesco's commercial director of group food, said: "Families are wasting an estimated £700 a year and we want to help them keep that money in their pockets, rather than throwing it in the bin"
While there is no "quick fix" solution, Simister stated: "We're playing our part too and making changes to our processes and in store.
"Ending multi-buy promotions on large packs of bagged salads is one way we can help, but this is just the start and we'll be reviewing what else we can do."
Richard Swannell, director of Wrap, said: "We welcome Tesco's approach to tackling food waste across their whole supply chain, and by identifying the hot spots they can tackle these areas effectively.
"Food waste is a global issue and collaborative action is essential if we are to successfully reduce food waste and reap the financial and environmental benefits of doing so."