Tesco to ‘revolutionise’ food waste with facility that turns surplus food into animal feed

Tesco is to open a new facility, which will turn surplus food into animal feed, and has the capacity to process 1,000 tonnes of surplus food each week.

The supermarket giant told The Grocer that the move could help to “revolutionise” how the food industry deals with waste.

Tesco has appointed engineering company RenEco to build the facility in Northamptonshire, which will transform surplus food products into pulp or crumb animal feed.

Every week from November, deliveries will be made to the site, with bakery and fresh produce to be the focus of the operation, while surplus meat and fish will undergo a separate process for household pet food.

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With 40% of the facility’s capacity used for Tesco’s surplus food, the supermarket will also have the space to take waste from other manufacturers and retailers.

Tesco group quality and sustainability director Claire Lorains told The Grocer: “Food waste is a global issue, so we’re continually looking for ways that we can reduce this across our own business, and support others to do so across the wider industry too.

“Working together with RenEco means that we are able to create a viable solution to reducing food waste, and we would urge other businesses to utilise the new facility for their own operations too. Together, we can make a real difference in tackling food waste.”

The retailer added that where surplus food can be eaten by humans, it should go to them.

It comes as earlier this year, Tesco terminated its relationship with its contractor after an internal review found that the supermarket’s food, which it believed was being processed for animal feed, was actually going to anaerobic digestion.

As a result, after removing animal feed from its reported numbers for 2022/23, Tesco’s group food waste reduction was 18% against its baseline – a number significantly lower than its previously reported reduction of 45%.