Tesco aims to reduce food waste
UK: Perfectly Imperfect strawberries and apples
"Last week we concluded some work, with our partner suppliers, to extend our retail specifications of strawberries and apples so that we can offer class 2 products to customers at great value prices. This means that we are now taking 95% of our suppliers' strawberries and 97% of our British apple growers' crops," said Matt Simister
Commercial Director, Fresh Food and Commodities, Tesco on LinkedIn.
"The work doesn't stop here though. We have experienced high levels of waste in-store on the parsnips in particular, and therefore need to continually develop our specifications so that we minimise the food that is wasted in any part of the chain. At the same time, we are then developing sustainable relationships between partner suppliers so that what customers won't pick up in-store, can hopefully find a home in the food chain when it needs one (e.g. via mashing, in the case of our lower grade potatoes; or juicing, in the case of our lower grade apples). We've already facilitated the up-take of 35T per week from our potato partner (Branston) into our ready meals partner (Samworth Brothers), and we're hopeful that the establishing of a juicing relationship with Scripps, our key grower of British apples, will utilise the remaining 2% of the edible crop."