Tesco latest food waste reduction move
Tesco has announced that it will give away food that is about to expire, for free. In this pioneering move to reduce waste, the supermarket says that food already “yellow-stickered” and about to expire will be offered at no cost.
The scheme will start at selected Tesco Express stores across the country, from 21.30 until stores close at midnight. The retail giant has not yet named the participating branches, which is unhelpful.
Secret Trials
According to the Daily Mail, this trial has been going on secretly for 4 months. Tesco declined to comment on how long it had been testing:
The supermarket giant confirmed the trial is already taking place ‘in a small number of our Tesco Express stores’ as part of efforts to cut food waste, but declined to say when it was first introduced.”
The paper claims that eagle-eyed readers spotted the trial as early as 9 November 2024 in a London store.
Donate not waste
Tesco already donates food to charities and foodbanks but fresh food can be more problematic, given the shorter “sell-by” dates.
As part of this “new” initiative, Tesco will still offer its surplus to charities and staff before customers. But there may still be a bargain or two to be had for consumers.
Cross-Industry Initiatives
All the major supermarkets have committed to reducing food waste and have partnerships in place with charities and foodbanks to donate surplus food. They have pledged to halve foot waste by 2030, a milestone Aldi claims to have already reached.
Tesco has pledged to cut its food waste by 50% this year. It claimed to have reduced food waste by 45% since 2017 to February 2024 but had to restate this figure as 18% after an investigation found that a contractor had been using some waste to generate gas to be burnt for energy. See this Guardian story Tesco cuts ties with food waste processor after row hits progress on environment for more details.
My View
Any initiative to reduce food waste is a positive development, but will we now see arguments in the aisles as people rush to get free food? How will it be managed? Perhaps this is why Tesco had been quietly rolling out the scheme, to monitor the launch and learn any lessons.
How they will put them into place and if new issues will arise when more people know what is happening remains to be seen!
