Perfectly Imperfect produce will be introduced in 200 stores this week in crackdown on food waste
Tesco is stepping up efforts to tackle food waste with the launch of a “wonky veg” range and a pledge to send all unwanted fresh produce to charity by end of next year.
The Perfectly Imperfect will initially offer parsnips and potatoes before expanding to include a further 15 types of produce, including carrots and apples, over the next few months. The scheme is launching in about 200 stores from Friday.
Meanwhile, Tesco is to extend its partnership with Fareshare, the food redistribution charity, from 14 to about 100 stores from Friday and to its 800 largest outlets by the end of the year.
Under the partnership, store managers are linked with local charities to collect unwanted food several times a week. The scheme has been tested at more than 100 stores in Ireland and has been running at at 14 stores in the UK over the past six months, including outlets in Glasgow, Belfast, on Merseyside and London.
The trial generated more than 22 tonnes of food – the equivalent of 50,000 meals. Now Tesco and FareShare want to join forces with 5,000 charities and community groups which would receive free surplus food.
FareShare and the tech company FoodCloud link stores with charities that provide meals to vulnerable people, including the homeless, substance addicts, children and the elderly.
Tesco generates more than 50,000 tonnes of food waste a year within its stores – about 1% of the food it handles – and it estimates that more than 30,000 tonnes of that is edible.
It is the only UK retailer to publish details of the amount of waste food it generates. Dave Lewis, the chief executive, said tackling waste was a priority.
The grocer’s attempts to tackle the food waste problem come as Lewis tries to revive the supermarket’s image, which has been tarnished by a £263m accounting scandal and criticism about its service as well as its treatment of suppliers.
Lewis said: “This is not to get people to like us again. This is about being a responsible business. Customers today want to know businesses where they choose to shop at are responsible. We have an opportunity, given our size and scale, to make massive a contributions to the communities in which we operate in, and why wouldn’t we do that?”
The issue of food waste has risen up the agenda after being highlighted by celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
MPs have also discussed whether legislation to ban the disposal of edible food by retailers should be introduced after a ban was imposed in France.
Tesco’s wonky veg launch comes after Asda and Morrisons announced similar ranges in recent weeks. Asda is selling boxes of in-season vegetables and salad ingredients 30% cheaper than its standard lines.
In December, Morrisons reported brisk sales of wonky potatoes and carrots after a trial in in Yorkshire and the north-east.
Most of the supermarkets have been distributing food left over at their warehouses to charities for several years. Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have schemes under which they send waste from stores to charities, but the vast majority of food waste from stores is sent for use as animal feed or to be loaded into anaerobic digestion energy plants. Lewis said: “I think the industry should work together on this. I don’t see it as a source of competitive advantage.”
Tesco would share its systems with other retailers, he added, and FareShare hoped to sign up another major supermarket to the scheme by the end of the year. “I don’t think this is just a trend. Demand won’t go away and no business wants to waste anything,” Lewis added.
Just over 1% of food wasted in the UK comes from stores, amounting to about 200,000 tonnes, according to figures published this year by the government-backed Waste Resources Action Programme. Of the estimated 15m tonnes of food disposed of annually in the UK , more than half is thrown away by households.
