Central England Co-Op has revealed it has reduced its food waste by 40% during the past three years, dropping from 2445 tonnes in 2017 to 1805 tonnes in 2020.
The retailer, which has over 240 food stores across 16 countries, said the reduction was achieved by improving ordering processes and as a result of its pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands.
The scheme allows the retailer to ensure 100% of its best before products are handed out to hundreds of local good causes.
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“We are proud that our hard work to reduce food waste has had such an impact over the past three years,” energy and environment lead Luke Olly said.
“This has been delivered through ongoing improvements in ordering processes and the roll out of our FareShare Midlands redistribution process which redistributes 100% of end-of-shelf life best before products to community partners across our trading estate.
“We backhaul items to one central location which enables our partner Fareshare Midlands to offer the food for free, with beneficiaries able to pre-order amounts and categories dependant on their needs”, Olly added.
“We continue to refine and improve our current processes as well as looking at rolling out new ones to ensure we carry on with our efforts to continue to reduce our levels of food waste, something that is vitally important as a responsible retailer.”
These figures come as it was revealed that our work with FareShare Midlands to redistribute food has resulted in the creation of over two million meals for those in need during the pandemic.
Central England Co-Op corporate responsibility manager Hannah Gallimore said: “We are extremely proud of our long-standing relationship with FareShare Midlands and the life-changing impact we have been able to have over the past few years of working together”
“We are proud of the amazing relationship we have had with such a great organisation for several years now and the reach and impact that these donations will have is further proof of the value of continuing to work together to help those in need during the summer months and beyond.”
