Food Waste

The latest data estimates that in the UK, 10 million tonnes of food is wasted from the time it leaves the farm to being consumed and 60% of this is avoidable. We believe this is simply unacceptable.

In 2017, we set a target to reduce our food waste per store by 25% by 2020 and 50% by 2030, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3.

As part of this we felt it was more important than ever to make our food waste data publicly available. Not only does the data give us a clear understanding of how much food waste we produce, and where it comes from, it also helps our customers, suppliers, and a wide range of organisations that are all working to reduce food loss.

View our food surplus and waste data here.

Our Food Waste

As part of our approach we are taking the following structured steps to ensure that we minimise our food surplus by preventing it in the first instance and, when we can’t, we’ll work to get it redistributed. To help us do this we’ve launched the following programmes:

Feed It Back: Whist we are working to minimise our food surplus there are inevitably instances where we are unable to sell all the food that has been delivered to our stores. For us, it’s important that this food surplus is redistributed to good causes. That’s why, in 2017, we launched our national food redistribution programme called Feed It Back.

Waste Not: Most recently we have introduced Too Good to Waste boxes, containing items that are no longer considered at their perfect best, but are still perfectly good to eat. These are now available in all our stores up until midday, while stocks last.

Find out how to make the most of your ‘Waste Not’ box here

Helping Our Customers

Product labelling and innovations in packaging give us a great opportunity to help our customers make the most of the food they buy. We are one of the first supermarkets to adopt WRAP's best practice guidance for date labels and storage, and we've incorporated new messaging techniques on our fruit, veg and bakery items to encourage customers to make the most of the food they buy from us.

A Roadmap For Our Suppliers

We know that the greater proportion of food waste is generated in our supply chain rather than our stores. Led by WRAP and the IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution), we are among the retailers joining food manufacturers and food service businesses to launch the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap. With a commitment to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 (in line with SDG 12.3), we are playing our part in stores, but more importantly, with our key suppliers, to do the same.