Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy is calling on supermarkets to report their own food waste data to help “turn the tide” on the amount of food waste produced worldwide.
He said that Tesco has not sent any food to landfill since 2009 and was the first retailer in the UK to publish its food waste data in 2013.
“We need global action across supply chains and government leaders to remain focused on supporting the industry and educating consumers, so that we continue to ensure no good food goes to waste,” Murphy said.
Through Tesco’s Community Food Connection scheme it has donated over 166m meals since 2016, redistributing around two million meals every month to local communities.
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The leading retailer has also ramped up its clearance sections of short-dated food to over 300 of its larger stores.
As a result of these efforts, Tesco has reduced overall food waste in its operations by 45% since 2016/17.
It also aims to halve food waste in its supply chains by 2030, which Murphy described as “a more challenging task”.
However, Tesco’s current steps in achieving this include selling ‘wonky’ fruit and veg, taking bumper harvests from growers to help reduce waste on farms, and over 100 of its suppliers have answered calls to disclose their food waste data.
Murphy said: “Reducing food waste on farms is a vital step to halving global food waste, and this year 36 of our global growers have started to measure and report their in-field and production food loss and waste, finding areas to improve and reduce this.”
With many in their third year of reporting, they have achieved a 3% reduction in food waste at packhouse level and an 11% reduction on farm in comparison to their baseline year.
“Retailers cannot solve food waste alone, and our farmers, growers and supplier partners play a huge role in helping us achieve this,” Murphy added.
