Wednesday 27 May 2020

Iceland slashes food waste by almost a quarter

Iceland has reported a 23.2% reduction in food waste in the past two years while setting a target to halve it by 2030.

The food retailer says the unsold food for its chain stores is donated to community shops in some of the most deprived areas of the UK, converted into animal feed, turned into beer or processed into energy through anaerobic digestion.

The company has cut out 2,500 tonnes of waste, through steps such as donating 375,000 meals in surplus food to communities.

One tonne of the unsold bread from the brand's Welsh stores was also used to produce beer, while 7,952 tonnes of food was sent for anaerobic digestion.

In 2019 and 2020 so far, Iceland has sold more than 1.3 million tonnes of food to customers and sent nothing to landfill, according to the report.