Supermarket giants will reveal food waste figures

MAJOR SUPERMARKETS have pledged to reveal the amount of food they discard in an effort to cut the millions of tons wasted every year.

Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, as well as Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-operative, will collectively release regular updates on the amount of food thrown out by stores from early next year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.

Tesco was the first of the supermarkets to release its figures, in October, revealing it generated 28,500 tonnes of food waste at its stores and distribution centres in the first six months of last year alone.

It announced it was to drop some food promotions, after finding that two-thirds of produce grown for bagged salad is wasted — 35% of it in the home. The retailer also found that 40% of apples are wasted, as are just under half of bakery items.

Figures from the Government’s waste reduction advisory body, Waste and Resources A ction Programme (Wrap), show 15 million tons of food are discarded every year in the UK.

The BRC said the UK retail industry will announce a range of “ambitious” targets, including a collective pledge to reduce absolute carbon emissions by 25% by 2020, “putting the industry well on course to meet the 80% overall target set by the UK Climate Change Bill”.

It said the supermarkets signed up to the initiative have committed to publish their data on food waste created at the retail stage, along with annual progress reports, and are working with consumers to help cut food waste in the home.

Other new targets to be announced included a commitment to reducing emissions from refrigeration gases by 80% by 2020 and to divert less than 1% of waste to landfill by the same year.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers in the UK have made significant progress in reducing their impact on the environment. I’m delighted that the signatories are pushing themselves to achieve against even more ambitious commitments, having gone above and beyond the last set of targets.”

Environment Secretar y Owen Paterson said: “This initiative has been very successful in showing how industry can reduce the environmental impact of the retail sector.”

Wrap said it welcomed the BRC’s initiative.

Picture: PA. The moves will include commitments to help consumers cut food waste in the home.