Supermarket giant ASDA has revealed how a partnership with the University of Leeds has helped customers reduce food waste and their shopping bill.
The research was presented at a reception in the Houses of Parliament by Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn.
The campaign featured a multi-channel approached that offered customers advice on food storage and labelling.
ASDA said that the research, “revealed that customer bank balances were, on average, £57 better off a year as they committed to cutting food waste”. In addition, 81 per cent of customers said they had followed the advice offered through the campaign.”
Chief customer office, Andy Murray, said in a statement that:
As a major food retailer, we have a responsibility and the ability to bring about large scale change when it comes to tackling food waste.
“By partnering with the University of Leeds, the team has been able to take our insight and really explore this area, meaning that we now have a greater understanding of customer attitude and behaviour, helping shape the way we communicate with our customers and ultimately the way we do business.”
After questioning a panel of 20,000 people, ASDA found that nine out of 10 customers cared about being green and their impacts on the environment.
The supermarket also found that customers’ attitudes are shifting with regards to the environment as in 2011, only 3 per cent of people said that they spoke about greener lifestyles ‘a lot’ with friends and family.
This had increased to 11 per cent in 2014, with another 48 per cent stating that they had talked about the issue “a little”.
Upon asking panel members whether green products make a difference in what they buy, 72 per cent of the panel said yes, though this was found to be varied throughout the UK.
In Northern Ireland, 88 per cent of people saw locally-sourced produce as important, whereas this figure dropped to 63 per cent in Scotland, 59 per cent in Wales, and 52 per cent in England.
Despite improvements in general attitude, 42 per cent of customers stated that they threw leftover food into the general waste bin, with only 34 per cent saying that they emptied unwanted food into a compost bin collected by the council.
