Retail case studies

Aldi

'In 2019, Aldi’s partnership with Neighbourly was rolled out to all stores, and donated one million meals. Our partnership with Company Shop has saved 936 tonnes of products (equivalent to 2 million meals). With suppliers, we can flex to accommodate crop failures or flushes. In summer 2019 we ranged purple sprouting broccoli six weeks early, saving 30 tonnes of food going to waste.'

Asda

'Smart technology, training & collaboration help Asda to maximise crop yields. In store, our ‘Date Team’ enables us to manage stock effectively. We calculate the right stock for the right place at the right time. ‘Sustain & Save Exchange’ aims for suppliers to save and invest £50m by 2020. And partnership with FareShare and The Trussell Trust provides 24 million meals every year to people facing food insecurity.'

Boots

'In June 2019 Boots signed up to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap to contribute to the ambitious target to reach a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030. Despite the particular challenge that our short shelf life, food-to-go offer presents, we have reduced our food waste by over 18%, between 2015 and 2018.'

Co-op

'Co-op has recently announced a 29% drop in food waste 2015-18. New stock control  systems allow us to arget waste more effectively, and new pricing systems enable food close to its date to still be sold. New packaging to extend shelf life of steaks has reduced waste by 8%. And our Food Share initiative partners 1,300 stores with 1,000 community groups to donate surplus food.'

Read the full Co-op case study

Co-op Central England

'Having driven down surpluses to an optimum level to minimise waste and maximise customer satisfaction, Co-op Central England now introduced store level food redistribution through our partner FareShare East Midlands. It is predicted this will drive down store waste by 40% and generate the equivalent of over one million meals, meaning our contribution to the UK redistribution market is over three times our retail market share.'

Iceland

'At Iceland, we do not send any unsold food to landfill. Instead, it is put to good use in the community, converted to animal feed or beer; or used to produce electricity or compost through anaerobic digestion. While only 0.7% of our food is currently unsold, we are working hard to reduce this amount even further.'

Lidl

'In 2018 Lidl launched ‘Too Good to Waste’ to target our highest waste category, fruit & veg. Each £1.50 box contains 5kg items not at ‘perfect best’, but still fine to eat. Unsold boxes are donated. Our ‘Feed It Back’ scheme, in partnership with Neighbourly, has supported 1,696 community groups and donated 3.9 million meals. Food waste data is published on our website.'

M&S

'We’re focused on reducing food waste across our value chain. The launch of the Roadmap has helped  amplify existing initiatives and supported with best practice guidance. We’ve made good progress on cutting food waste through improved forecasting, connecting every store with a redistribution charity and work with strategic suppliers to reduce food waste as part of our joint business planning process. The Roadmap has helped us go further and faster.'

Morrisons

'Morrisons support over 250 farmers through our ‘Naturally Wonky’ range, and in 2018 we sold over 40 million packs, the equivalent of 1,200 tonnes per week. We’ve also launched a ‘Too Good to Waste’ box, selling discounted fresh fruit and veg that’s just past the date but still perfectly edible.'

Musgrave

'At Musgrave we focus on food waste prevention at source through staff training and adopting new procedures – both in store and at our warehouses. To tackle food surplus we’ve developed new barcode scanning technology. And we  encourage all our suppliers to adopt SDG 12.3.'

Ocado

'Ocado’s business model is built around efficiency and low waste. By continually improving our technology, processes, and our relationships with suppliers over the past year our food waste is practically zero, just 1 in 6,000 products go to waste and we’re working hard to reduce that further.'

Sainsbury’s

'As a responsible retailer, Sainsbury’s contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and  constantly seek out opportunities to cut down on food waste through preventing surplus stock in the supply chain. Our Surplus Stock programme identifies where surplus stock is created in the supply chain, which allows us to mitigate against this. Additionally, our collaborative agreements with suppliers including Premier Foods are successfully reducing volumes of surplus stock per year.'

The first ‘whole chain food waste reduction plan’ (WCP), as part of the UK’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, has been delivered through a collaboration between Sainsbury’s, Fullers Foods and Lamb Weston / Meijer UK (LWM). Read the full case study here.

Tesco

'At Tesco we are clear that individual companies publicly measuring and reporting on food waste and loss is critical if the world is to deliver SDG 12.3 and halve global food waste by 2030. Last year 27 of our largest suppliers – representing  over half of our own label fresh food sales – published their data for the first time. Since then 11 of the world’s largest food brands including Mars, Unilever and General Mills have also committed to halve their food waste by 2030, publish food waste data for their  operations and take concrete steps to reduce food losses and waste. We are calling on every food company to Target, Measure and Act on food waste and publicly report their data.'

Waitrose & Partners

'Working with trusted suppliers we want to continue to come up with solutions to tackle food waste in our supply chain and be more transparent. Waitrose & Partners’ adoption of the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap is a pivotal step towards working with the UK food industry in delivering SDG 12.3, and we have actively encouraged our suppliers to follow suit.'