Led by Tesco Ireland, 12 of Ireland’s largest fresh food suppliers have committed to tackle food waste as part of the global movement aligned to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve levels by 2030.
The Irish food suppliers, including Aryzta, Country Crest, Keelings, Total Produce, and Manor Farm, have committed to publicly target, measure and act to tackle the issue of food waste at their manufacturing sites and to working collaboratively to adopt the UN’s goal. Key to this will be to measure and publicly publish details of their food waste for the first time in 2020.
At a global level, they will join other Irish Tesco own label suppliers who previously signed up to this commitment with the Tesco group, including Hilton, Kepak, Kerry, Greencore and Ornua.
Tesco has led the way in tackling food waste across the industry in Ireland. The retailer has adopted Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 as the formal target to tackle food waste. By diverting its surplus food from going to waste working in partnership with FoodCloud since 2014, Tesco has saved 12 million kilograms of carbon emissions from being produced through the transport and processing of this food as waste.
Welcoming the initiative as he attended the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton said: “A key part of the Government’s Climate Action Plan is tackling food waste and it is an area in which business can really make a tangible, measurable change. Tesco have been pioneering in working to measure, manage and reduce their food waste and I commend them for this initiative. This move will have a significant impact, not just in terms of reducing food waste, but in helping Ireland to reach our carbon reduction targets.”
Kari Daniels, CEO of Tesco Ireland, commented: “At Tesco, we have no time for waste. We believe that it’s simply not right that perfectly edible surplus food should go to waste when there are people in our communities who need it. We were the first retailer in Ireland to launch a national surplus food donations programme which has provided over 9 million meals to those in need to date, in partnership with FoodCloud.
“As a food business, we, along with our suppliers, will inevitably have a level of food waste in our business. That’s why it is so important that we’re tackling waste right across the supply chain – both at branded and own-brand levels. We’re very proud to bring together these leading suppliers of our business to address the most frequently wasted products and work meaningfully together to address how we can change.”
