Tesco Ireland has today announced that a further three of its major fresh food suppliers have signed up to tackle food waste in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), to help halve food waste by 2030.
Greenfield Foods (Monaghan), Nature’s Best (Louth), and Birds Eye Ireland (Naas) will now target, measure and act on food waste at their manufacturing sites and work collaboratively to adopt the UN Goal, the retailer said.
Tesco Ireland said that the three suppliers are the latest companies to join a cohort of fresh food suppliers, who are collaborating with Tesco to address food waste within their operations in Ireland.
Welcoming the commitment of Tesco Ireland’s suppliers, Kari Daniels, CEO of Tesco Ireland commented: “At Tesco, we believe that no good food should go to waste and we have been having encouraging conversations with our suppliers on how to tackle food waste along the entire supply chain."
Global Food Waste Initiative
In a statement, the company said that the participating suppliers to Tesco Ireland are among 71 of Tesco’s largest suppliers around the world that have agreed to target, measure and act on food waste - aligned with Tesco’s participation in the global food waste initiative Champions 12.3.
Iseult Ward co-founder of FoodCloud said: “With global food waste contributing to approximately 8% of GHG [Greenhouse gas] emissions, it is no surprise that tackling food waste is the No. 3 solution to reversing global warming, identified by Project Drawdown."
Committed Suppliers
Last year, twelve companies joined up with this leading commitment - since then, they have been measuring the out come and effective from today they will publish their food waste data for the first time, Tesco said.
Kerry Foods have also continued their efforts as part of the ongoing commitment, it added.
Including the three additions to the list today, the 17 Tesco Ireland suppliers now committed to targeting, measuring and acting on food waste include: Aryzta (bakery) - Dublin; Stapleton’s (bakery) - Tipperary; Panelto (bakery) - Longford; Country Crest (produce) - Dublin; Total Produce (produce) - Dublin; Keelings (produce) - Dublin; Manor Farm (poultry) – Cavan / Meath; Ballymaguire Foods (ready meals) – Dublin; Western Brand (poultry) - Mayo; O’Brien Fine Foods (cooked meats) - Kildare; ABP (meat) - Louth; Hilton Meats (meat) – Louth; Greenfield Foods (Monaghan); Nature’s Best (Louth); Birds Eye Ireland (Naas); Kerry Foods and Unilever Ireland (Dublin).
"Tesco has taken a leadership position in developing partnerships to tackle food waste both across their own operations and in the supply chain," Ward added.
The retailer noted that every year, a third of the world’s food goes to waste, yet one in 11 people in Ireland go to bed hungry each night.
Every year food waste emits four times as many greenhouse gases as aviation, it added.
Supplier case studies are available to view via Tesco's website.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
