Tesco CEO Ken Murphy has called on the government and retailers to focus on food waste data.
The comments come after Murphy announced the supermarket hasn’t sent any food to landfill since 2009.
Murphy stated the supermarket became the first to report its food waste data in 2013, highlighting the retailer has reduced overall food waste in its operations by 45% since 2016/17.
“We haven’t sent any food to landfill since 2009, and were proud to be the first retailer in the UK to publish our food waste data back in 2013 – encouraging others to do the same,” Murphy stated.
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“We’re really pleased with the progress we’re making and that’s why – almost a year ago to the day – we announced that we were accelerating plans to halve our own operations food waste by 2025, five years ahead of the UN target,” he added.
How is Tesco dealing with food waste?
The UK produces the highest amount of food waste in Europe, throwing away around 9.5 million of food in a single year. Over the course of 2022/2023, Tesco created a total of 35,064 tonnes of food waste in the UK.
A spokesperson for Tesco said the supermarket follows the WRAP food waste hierarchy.
“That means we start by avoiding food surplus where possible,” the spokesperson added.
“Where we do have surplus, we redistribute it to humans (Fareshare and Olio). Where it cannot go to humans it goes to animals (pet food or animal feed). Anything that is left after all that goes to energy recovery (anaerobic digestion). This means nothing goes to landfill.”
Earlier this year, Tesco announced 88% of unsold food safe for human consumption was redistributed in 2022/23, up 5% from last year.
The supermarket giant also works with its suppliers, aiming to half its food waste in its supply chains by 2030.
Just over 100 suppliers are disclosing its food waste data to Tesco to help the supermarket measure progress towards it targets.
