Sustainable Business

Retail Food Waste 3/3 according to Stuart is much, much further down the supply chain - at farm level. And it's a problem that isn't really getting reported on. Retailers have no legal obligation to publicly report on food waste arisings and if they do, supply chain waste is often missed off official figures, thus giving a distorted picture. "There is a huge amount of emphasis on waste at the consumer level, but one of my main concerns is how that is being used to deflect attention away from waste in the supply chain," Stuart asserts. "Our campaign looks particularly at how supermarket policies offload food waste onto their suppliers, particularly farmers, who have no option but to waste sometimes between 30% to 100% of it." While WRAP's Courtauld Commitment is going in the right direction by getting the UK food industry to work together to help reduce wastage levels both within store and among suppliers, Stuart points out that it still remains a voluntary agreement with no targeted measurables at production level. "It's something we have been talking to Defra about for years, there is an ongoing issue of how much food is wasted on farms because no-one has really measured it. "There has been movement on this I'm pleased to say, and Defra have committed money to try and answer that question," Stuart says. What Stuart would like to see is greater accountability among the major food retailers on this front given their level of influence right down the supply chain. In many cases, he argues, it's "blindingly obvious" what needs to be done and certain problems can be tackled instantly. "One of the supermarkets we are working with went to visit their Costa Rican pineapple growers and saw piles of rotting pineapples rejected because they were a few millimeters too big for the specification required. So they decided to market some supersized pineapples within their stores to see if they'd sell, and they did." Besides relaxing such specifications, another area that supermarkets could address is smarter forecasting - and communicating that level of knowledge with their suppliers. Stuart says that progress is being made here, but would like to see retailers go one step further. "Say you get a forecast wrong, if you take responsibility for the waste that is generated from that inaccurate forecast you can try and help your supplier find a secondary market for that product. We are yet to see significant measured reductions in food waste as a result of that." Asked what levers could effectively force supermarkets to open up their supply chains to greater scrutiny, Stuart points to various legislative measures such as the recently passed Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill and the European Transparency Directive, but ultimately he reckons competition will be the real game-changer. "When I go and talk to supermarkets, the point at which they prick up their ears is when they hear one of their competitors has done something more than they have. When we finally get one of the big supermarkets to report in a transparent way, that will provide a best practice gold standard for the industry ... and there will be a race to catch up with that best practice."

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