The Great Waste Debate

Wasted: 68 per cent of salad grown for salad bags; 40 per cent of apples; 20 per cent of all bananas; 25 per cent of grapes.

In publishing the findings of its unique ‘waste footprint’ study this week, Tesco has provided a pretty damning picture of the throw-away culture in its fresh produce supply chain. The supermarket has provided a snapshot of 25 different foods and the waste arising at various points in the supply chain – from farm to household bin. It will also be using this information to change its processes and waste less.

Tesco has the scale to affect change, both among its suppliers and, perhaps, its customers. Indeed, it wants to help both groups cut waste and save money. Every little will help, but even the largest supermarket in the UK cannot fight the waste battle alone. So, what is the scale of the problem and is change happening quickly enough to ensure that food is not wasted and nine billion people can be fed by 2050?

High profile

Food waste is top of the tree when it comes to the food sector’s sustainability agenda currently – usurping carbon, water and anything else as the media and public hone in on an issue that they understand. Indeed, the fact that Tesco selected food waste as one of its three ‘Big Ambitions’, announced six months ago, is unsurprising: it is a commercially and environmentally astute move, but it is also a gamble.

A number of high-profile reports have shown just how resource-inefficient the grocery supply chain has become. In January, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMech) calculated that 50 per cent (1-1.2bn tonnes) of all the food produced globally never reaches a human stomach. More recently, in September, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated that food waste costs the world’s economy $750bn (£470bn) a year, and is “wreaking significant harm” on natural resources. More than half (54 per cent) of the world’s food wastage occurs ‘upstream’ during production, post-harvest handling and storage. The rest (46 per cent) happens ‘downstream’, at the processing, distribution and consumption stages.

And earlier this month Wrap (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) revealed that 6.5Mt of food and packaging waste is thrown away along the UK grocery supply chain. Worryingly, this figure doesn’t include what ends up in kitchen bins.

The real eye-opener in Wrap’s vast report was the cost of waste: when the food and ingredients, the energy and water and the disposal and lost profits are all factored in, waste costs retailers and manufacturers in the UK £950 per tonne. That means the cost of chucking away one tonne of waste has almost doubled in a few years – from £500 – principally due to rising energy and raw material prices.

“It is blindingly obvious why we need to reduce food waste,” said Tesco CEO Philip Clarke this week in his speech at the Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. “When I said earlier this year [launching the Big Ambitions] that Tesco wanted to lead in reducing food waste, I wasn’t just talking about reducing food waste in our own operations. I meant making a difference from the farmer’s field to the customer’s fridge, and beyond.”

Fields of waste

Among Tesco’s announcements was a new scheme to work with producers to trial new varieties of grapes and the potential to cover crops in rainy geographies to prevent damage and loss. With apple producers it is looking at using natural predators in orchards to reduce pests and diseases. Tesco has also introduced a new state-of-the-art temperature control system to ensure bananas last longer in transportation. All this in a bid to cut the 16 per cent of food wasted before it arrives at the store. Its mid-year Tesco and Society report, published this week, reads: “Our new approach of building formal partnerships with suppliers will deliver reductions in food waste across the supply chain through better forecasting, improved infrastructure and knowledge sharing on our Producer Network.”

Those in the horticulture and fresh produce supply chain will be watching this commitment with particular interest – not least because 30 per cent of the UK vegetable crop is never harvested. This is a statistic that IMech was at pains to spotlight in its report: “Major supermarkets, in meeting consumer expectations, will often reject entire crops of perfectly edible fruit and vegetables at the farm because they do not meet exacting marketing standards for their physical characteristics, such as size and appearance.” Campaign group Feeding the 5,000 also claims to have evidence of instances in Kenya where Kenyan growers supplying UK supermarkets are “forced to waste more than 40 per cent of their crops due to unnecessarily fussy retail cosmetic standards or cancellation of forecast orders.”

The changing weather has created a shift in attitudes among UK retailers and consumers, however. Few need reminding of the problems encountered during last year’s harvest, but retailers reacted by lowering specs as ‘ugly’ produce flooded their basic ranges. According to Achim Steiner, executive director at the UN Environment Programme, one of the “fastest areas of growth in [UK] food sales
is the demand for wonky, cosmetically challenged fruit and vegetables”. Though shoppers may be willing to buy ugly fruit and veg, convincing them to buy produce with more packaging will be much more tricky.

More plastic, less waste

Tesco wants to encourage shoppers to waste less food at home. A ban on certain multi-buy promotions could help, but it has been down that route before with its ‘buy one get one free later’ trial in 2010 that was “discontinued due to customer feedback”, according to a spokeswoman. It’ll also be expanding twin packs which “offer smaller portions that last longer”, which might expose it to criticism of “price increases through the back door”, says David Howlett, a packaging expert at MMR Research.

“Packs more suited to portion sizes has to be one way to go, buteven this will be criticised.People won’t realise or accept that the distribution and logistics costs dwarf the prices paid to the producers.So a 100g bag will come in only a little less than 200g.”

Howlett believes Tesco has taken a gamble in drawing attention to the “terrifyingly high wastage levels applying to certain bagged salads, fruit and vegetable produce, but the publicity will encourage debate and help people recognise the role that both retailers and consumers play in this problem”.

Recent research by the Industry Council for research on Packaging & the Environment (INCPEN) concluded that “it could be worth exploring if packaging more foods sold loose would reduce waste”. Convincing shoppers of the need for such a move will be “an uphill task”, admits the council’s director Jane Bickerstaffe. “But people are far more intelligent than is often assumed.”

Whether Tesco’s tactics and transparency are smart or foolish remains to be seen, but exposing the supply chain is certainly a brave move. —