In a bid to improve communication between its supermarkets and growers and suppliers, Tesco has unveiled a hotline to highlight food waste ‘hotspots’.
Open to every single supplier that the supermarket works with, the hotline would serve as a link between businesses in order to tackle supply chain food waste — helping them to work together to take action.
Matt Simister, Tesco fresh food commercial director said:
At Tesco, we have no time for waste, and we are committed to reducing food waste wherever it occurs, from farm to fork.
“The ‘food waste hotline’ is another little help we are making to achieve this with our suppliers. It helps our suppliers gain direct, easy access to our product teams, and this will enable us to identify food waste hotspots and systemic issues and work in partnership to tackle them.”
Last year’s summer weather, which was warmer than forecast, meant that the summer crop ripened all at the same time, leading Tesco to take the entire crop and introduce larger boxes to stores.
The supermarket has pledged to help halve all UK food waste by 2025 and has also made the commitment that no surplus food should be wasted in its UK operations by the end of 2017.
According to the supermarket, less than one per cent of food is wasted in its operations, but figure still accounts for 60,000 tonnes of waste per year.
