Supermarket plan to help cut down on food waste

CENTRAL Co-op has announced the rollout of a partnership to help in the fight against food waste and food poverty.

Through this collaboration, representatives from Olio, a sharing app company, will rescue good food directly from Central Co-op stores at the end of each day, and share it with members of the surrounding community in as little as 30 minutes.

The retailer says its commitment to sustainability and community support is exemplified by its food redistribution scheme, which has evolved to become a cornerstone of its mission.

Central Co-op says its initiatives have achieved milestones over the years, such as becoming zero to landfill in 2010; aligning with the government’s waste hierarchy framework and working with food waste charities since 2017. It says it has continuously adapted to better serve its community and the environment.

It says Olio and its food-safety trained “Food Waste Hero” workers will play a vital role in this partnership, collecting surplus food from Co-op stores, taking it home, and advertising it on the Olio app for individuals or groups to collect free.

Co-op says this decentralised approach promises to maximise community benefit while minimising waste, empowering more individuals and families to access resources. This is especially important during the cost of living crisis, and when so many families are struggling to access the food they need.

So far the scheme claims to have saved 351,488 items, rescued 106,022kg of food (equivalent to 17 elephants!) and saved the equivalent of 194,505 meals, benefiting 6,848 individual households.

Additionally, the partnership has saved 61 million litres of water, avoided 352,322kg of CO2 emissions, taken 1.2 million car miles off the road, and planted the equivalent of 16,182 trees.