Not only is there a clear environmental impact, but buying excess food is also a drain on our customers’ wallets. It’s for these reasons that we’re working together with our colleagues and customers to tackle the wider issue.  

As a responsible retailer, we’ve worked hard to develop policies that benefit both our customers and the environment whilst combatting the issue of food waste throughout our supply chain and in-store. We’ve launched initiatives to tackle food waste all the way from farms and suppliers right to our customers’ kitchens and dining rooms.

We’ve worked closely with both our customers and suppliers, as well as government and industry bodies such as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and WRAP, to overhaul our policies to reduce food waste and encourage our customers to do the same. That’s why we committed to the industry-wide pledge to halve food waste by 2030.

What changes have we made so far?

Innovative packaging

We increased investment to revolutionise how our products are packaged. For example, we’ve introduced vacuum packaging across many of our meat and fish lines which boosts shelf life significantly, so products last 3-5 times as long. This dramatically cuts the amount of food wasted, boosts sustainability and reduces the annual food bills for our customers.

Clearer labelling

We realised that part of the confusion around the freshness of food was down to labelling so we’ve simplified it across the majority of our products. Our labelling is now clearer than ever and perishable food only includes ‘Best Before’ or ‘Use-by’ dates. We’ve also worked with our colleagues and customers to clarify the difference between these two dates so customers understand exactly how they can store products and for how long they can be enjoyed.

We realised that there was also some confusion around freezing products, with many products stating that they had to be frozen on the day of purchase. This led to more food waste and more expensive weekly shops so we made our labels clearer to indicate that products can be frozen at any point up until the ‘Use-by’ date.

Where possible, our packaging also contains advice on how products can be stored to boost shelf life. For example, we recommend including a sheet of kitchen roll in salad packaging in the fridge or drying fresh herbs to prolong freshness.

Reusing unsold food

In some cases, our colleagues are able to reuse some unsold, in-date products to create other products to then be placed back on the shelves. For example, over 100 of our stores regularly turn unsold bananas into delicious banana bread to be sold in our in-store bakeries whilst many of our cafes offer customers used coffee grounds which can make great compost.

Throughout the year, our stores and colleagues work hard to ensure that any unsold food is distributed to the most vulnerable members of our local communities. We currently have long-standing partnerships with over 1,100 local food banks and other charities across the UK.

In rare cases where leftover food or products aren’t edible we ensure that it is still reused, often by converting it into animal feed. However, this isn’t always possible – if it contains animal by-products for example. Where this is the case, we work with third parties to convert products into green energy.

In addition to reducing food wastage, we’re also committed to ensuring that plastics and other packaging are kept to an absolute minimum to reduce the impact on the environment. You can read more about our commitment to lower our environmental footprint here