Tesco has doubled down on its commitment to supporting farmers through difficult growing seasons, as the current warm and dry conditions prove to be a challenge for many suppliers.
The UK’s leading supermarket is continually looking at ways to support its growers and suppliers. As a result of this ongoing commitment, Tesco has changed the required specification of its Iceberg lettuces, allowing growers to harvest them quicker so they retain their crispiness.
The new sizing specification means that the lettuces can now be picked up to two days earlier than before, ensuring they don’t wilt in the fields and will stay crisper for longer.
Tesco currently sells more than 900,000 lettuces every week, across the UK.
“We have always been committed to supporting our growers through challenging seasons,” a Tesco spokesperson told Grocery Gazette.
“Already this summer we have changed the size specification of our iceberg lettuces, so that growers can harvest them more quickly during the dry conditions.”
Tesco’s long-standing collaborative relationships with its growers help the supermarket use as much of their crops as possible, with the produce buying team visiting farms in order to fully understand the impact of the recent warm weather on crops.
Some of these crops will form part of the Perfectly Imperfect range, which stops food going to waste unnecessarily and currently includes strawberries, potatoes, apples and pears, as well as Iceberg lettuce.
Tesco has previously supported its farmers during challenging growing conditions by selling excess produce at a reduced price. During the Saharan dust storms earlier this year, products were labelled products to reassure customers they were ok to consume, which meant it was able to sell crops that otherwise would have been wasted.
The supermarket also finds other ways to make use of produce which would otherwise go to waste, such as dicing onions and potatoes to be used in own-brand ready meals.
“We will continue to support growers however we can – whether that’s through changes to specifications, adding to our Perfectly Imperfect range, or using the produce as an ingredient in other products such as ready meals instead,” the spokesperson added.
