Food loss and waste is a global issue with environmental, social and financial impacts. Around 1/3 of food produced for human consumption being lost or wasted globally, and if not tackled early on in the chain, food loss and waste will create major problems to the environment, and deprive people in need of this food. Ahold Delhaize brands are working hard to reduce food waste, both inside their own operations and across the supply chain, together with customers and suppliers.
Our “Grounded in Goodness” strategy is centered around our belief that what is healthy and sustainable should be accessible and available to all. With a dual focus on healthier people and a healthier planet, our strategy is based on the idea that these two things are intrinsically linked.
Acting responsibly today is imperative to securing a better tomorrow for generations to come. This approach ensures the decisions we make are grounded in doing the right thing for people – with a focus on customers, products, communities and associates – and planet – with a focus on impact from our own operations and working with farmers and suppliers to reduce the impact across the entire supply chain.
We recognise that food loss and waste is a systemic issue which requires the participation of all the players across the food value chain in order to achieve SDG 12.3. Our own objective is to halve food waste within our own operations by 2030 compared to a 2016 baseline.
In addition to our own operations, we see upstream food loss as the next frontier in eliminating wasted food. The further along the chain the food loss occurs, the more carbon intensive the wastage. If we turn that around and tackle food loss as early as possible, the less carbon emissions are associated with it. By reducing the amount of food waste at the source and donating surplus products to food banks, we can reduce our environmental impact while creating a positive social impact.
In 2019, Ahold Delhaize became a founding partner of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) 10x20x30 initiative. The initiative brings together 10+ global food retailers who have each committed to engaging with 20 of their priority suppliers to halve their rates of food loss and waste by 2030. Ahold Delhaize brands have so far partnered with fourteen major suppliers to join WRI’s 10x20x30 initiative to root out food loss and waste in the food supply chain. These suppliers have committed to reduce food waste by 50% in their own operations by 2030. They will measure and publish their food waste inventory and create actionable food waste reduction strategies.
Our Greek brand Alfa Beta, conducted an 18-month study on food loss waste throughout its supply chain, back in 2019, together with Harokopio University in Athens, Greece, which helped Alfa Beta to set a baseline and measure food waste across the brand’s entire supply chain. It was the first time a Greek retailer had aimed to answer the question ‘How much food do we waste across our supply chain?’ Following that, in collaboration with their strategic partner WWF, Alfa Beta prepared an introductory booklet on food waste for suppliers, that was sent out to all its suppliers last year. In March 2023, Alfa Beta continued the journey to educate its suppliers, with an online webinar on food waste for suppliers (both own brand and national). Throughout the rest of 2023, Alfa Beta will organize dedicated workshops to deep dive into the issues and solutions for tackling food loss and waste and loss together with their suppliers.
Ahold Delhaize USA is participating in an upstream food loss project which aims to obtain better information about the amount of food left behind at the farm level to identify causes for food loss and interventions, set individual and national reduction targets and track progress. The project, launched in 2023, is a collaboration among CGF, WWF, WRAP and Anthesis. Thus far, seven members of CGF’s FWCoA are engaging their suppliers on beta trials of the Global Food Loss Metric Calculator Tool.
In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn collaborates with its suppliers to prevent food waste. Albert Heijn’s fruits and vegetable supplier, Bakker Barendrecht, supplies juice producer Hoogesteger with the residual flow of oranges. As soon as sales in the store go down or as soon as there are damages to the peel, Bakker Barendrecht supplies the oranges to Hoogesteger who uses them to produce juices.
Working with suppliers to jointly reduce food loss and waste can result in environmental, social and economic benefits, in addition to “not traversing the food loss and waste reduction journey alone”. This is part of the offer of the 10x20x30 initiative. The benefit is that by collaborating with suppliers, we achieve more. We as food retailers have the opportunity to connect partners and join forces, like the example from Albert Heijn were in 2020, 475,000 kilograms of oranges were saved from being wasted. We also have the opportunity to share best practices and give suppliers tools to accelerate their efforts, like the example from Alfa Beta.
