Every little helps: best and worst donators revealed
They say: “We first published our food waste data in 2013 and believe that only by understanding the
1. Tesco – 13.7% donated
hotspots can we reduce waste. Our priority is to reduce this surplus through optimising our forecasting, ordering and ‘reduce to clear’ processes. Our target is that no food safe for human consumption will be wasted and [if you deduct 16,497 tons sent to animal feed and 9,661 tons given to colleagues] we are now 77 per cent of the way there.”
2. Aldi – 13.3% donated
They say: “The increase in our donations is largely as a result of our partnership with Neighbourly, which started in 2019 and has rapidly expanded across all stores. We donated 4 million meals to charities in 2019 and over 8 million meals in 2020. This year, we have launched a campaign, supported by Marcus Rashford, which will see us distribute 10 million meals to families affected by hunger, through our partnership with Neighbourly.”
3. Co-op – 11.4% donated
They say: “We are committed to tackling food waste and in 2019 we donated almost 6 million meals to local causes and those in need from our UK stores and depots. Through our Food Share redistribution programme – which redistributes unsold fresh food nearing its ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ date – our stores in Greater London gave produce for 4.6 million meals to 100 charities and organisations fighting to alleviate food poverty. In addition, through our partnership with FareShare, we donated 1.3 million meals.”
4. Waitrose – 8.9% donated
They say: “Our intention is that all edible food is redistributed and we are in the process of developing more efficient measurement functions to improve our ability to identify food surplus fit for human consumption. Since the start of our relationship with FareShare in 2017, we have donated 1,792 tons of surplus food, equivalent to 4.2 million meals.”
5. Marks and Spencer – 7.9% donated
They say: “In response to Covid, we accelerated the rollout of new technology to redistribute more food in
our 585 owned stores. The app sits on our [staff’s] handheld devices and means we can calculate the food we have available to donate and send a direct alert to our charity partners. Through our partnership with Neighbourly, our stores have supported 1,500 causes since 2015. Currently, the app is enabling us to donate 60 per cent of our edible surplus each week and our redistribution rates have doubled in most stores.”
6. Morrisons – 5.4% donated
They say: “Our target is to reduce operational food waste by 50 per cent by 2030 and from our starting point in 2016 we are on target to meet this goal. We also aimed to double the amount of food redistributed by 2019-20 and have achieved that goal.”
7. Asda – 5.4% donated
They say: “We donated 1,723 tons of surplus food to charity and gave 420 tons of vegetables to customers free of charge at Christmas and Easter. We are working to remove food waste from across operations and during 2019 extended our food donation programme to over 450 stores. In the last three years, we have supported 2,000 charities and have donated 4.7 million meals.”
8. Lidl – 4.2% donated
They say: “Addressing food waste is one of the most important topics our industry is facing and we are fully committed to it. The amount of food we redistributed for human consumption has almost tripled over the last three years since the launch of our national food redistribution programme – Feed It Back – in partnership with Neighbourly.”
9. Sainsbury’s – 3.8% donated
They say: “In 2019-20, 92 per cent of our stores had food donation partners and we now have over 1,100 such partnerships across the UK. This year, for a range of reasons, the amount of leftover operational waste in our business is down. This is a positive step for climate change but had a knock-on effect on the amount
of surplus food we had to donate.”
10. Iceland – 1.7% donated
They say: “Our focus on frozen helps to cut waste throughout our supply chain. We have achieved a 23 per cent reduction in food waste in the last two years. Following a trial, we are currently rolling out a policy allowing store colleagues to take unsold food home with them at the end of the day.”
Data all self-reported by supermarkets, except Aldi, whose surplus was calculated using an estimate based on market share