Sainsburys campaign targets consumer food waste

Retail giant Sainsburys has today (January 16) unveiled a campaign to encourage consumers to cut down on the amount of food waste they generate each week.

The campaign, titled Make your Roast go Further, is being backed by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and focuses on waste from roast dinners, which according to Sainsburys is one of the main contributors to wasted food in the home.

Customers are being offered advice including recipe cards and meal-planners to help prevent edible food left over from roast dinners end up in the bin. It will also be supported by a national print and television advertising campaign.

Susi Richards, head of food at Sainsburys, said: Our research shows that the Sunday roast is a significant contributor to overall food waste in UK households and this is why we have made it central to our new Food Goes Further campaign. We want to help our customers Live Well for Less at the same time as educating them on the issues of waste.

If each of the 22 million customers who pass through our stores each week thinks differently about their Sunday roast leftovers, then we would see less food in the bin and more money in our pockets. We have provided a series of easy to follow recipes for leftovers, meal planners and tips to help our customers be more efficient with food.

Report

The launch of the campaign follows the publication last week of Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not a report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which estimated that as much as half of the worlds food is wasted. In the UK, it estimated that as much as seven million tonnes is thrown away each year, worth an estimated 10.2 billion.

Emma Marsh, head of Love Food Hate Waste at WRAP, said: Food waste isnt good for family finances or the environment. One of the major barriers to UK households reducing their food waste is a lack of confidence in using leftovers. If we can encourage UK households to get savvy with left-over food, effective planning and storage of food, we are one step closer to reducing the amount of UK waste that finds its way to landfill.

Earlier this month, Sainsburys revealed that it had achieved its aim to send zero food waste to landfill during 2012 and that it is on track to send zero waste to landfill from all its stores, offices and transport depots by Easter this year.

AD

Sainsburys claims to be the largest retail user of anaerobic digestion (AD) in the UK, and has recently invested in organic waste recycling firm Tamar Energy, which plans to build a network of up to 44 AD sites across the UK.

This follows the signing of a three-year deal in 2011 with waste management firm Biffa to process food waste from its 1,063 locations nationwide (see letsrecycle.com story).

The retailer was also the first UK supermarket chain to change labelling on frozen products, advising consumers to freeze food up to a products use by date rather than on the day of purchase. Sainsburys estimates that the measure could prevent up to 400,000 tonnes of edible food from being discarded each year.