UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, a commitment to halve food waste by 2030, is still within reach, with measurement, collaboration and policy alignment essential to achieving it, a discussion panel at the Economist Impact Sustainability Week summit in London has heard.
The panel brought together Nick Hampton, CEO of Tate & Lyle, Charlotte Hill, CEO of food redistribution charity The Felix Project, and Christine Heffernan, chief communications and sustainability officer at Tesco.
Heffernan reiterated the importance of SDG 12.3 to the retailer, noting that Tesco is a founding member of Champions 12.3, a coalition of industry leaders committed to delivering the goal.
“Maybe we need to challenge ourselves in how we talk about [SDG 12.3], because it doesn’t always rank as highly when the focus is on sustainability,” she said. “We’re doing strong work to quantify the economic value of food waste for consumers – approaching it in a way that makes it tangible and builds the sense of momentum the issue deserves.”
Hill echoed her sentiment. “We need to keep talking about it,” she added. “This cannot fall down. In very busy political times, we can’t take our eye off the ball because this is one of the greatest impacts on climate change and this is one of the ways we genuinely can make an impact. This is a solvable one.”
Scale of the issue
As the panel discussed, both on a global level and in the UK, the scale of the food waste problem is stark. Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted each year, contributing close to 10% of global emissions. In the UK alone, 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted each year, equating to about £19 billion worth of food.
During the discussion, Heffernan acknowledged the scale of the problem – “we see food waste at every point in the supply chain,” she noted – adding that transparency is central to progress, pointing to Tesco’s commitment to publish food waste data under a target-measure-act approach.
“The reality is that only by working together – and taking a systems-level approach – can we make a difference,” she said.
Around 100 of Tesco’s suppliers also report food waste data, she added, and among these, waste has fallen by about 60%.
Food redistribution
Hill discussed the role that redistribution plays in tackling the food waste issue. Despite The Felix Project delivering around 150 million meals last year, less than 1% of surplus food in the UK reaches charities, with significant levels of food waste still occurring in farming and manufacturing.
In farming, she noted that subsidy structures make anaerobic digestion financially preferable to redistribution, calling for this measure to he reassessed given the extent of food insecurity in the UK.
“Sending food that isn’t fit for human consumption to anaerobic digestion is a great thing,” she said. “We want to absolutely see that happen. But where it’s having unintended consequences is that farmers that are planting crops that could feed people are instead being subsidised to send them to anaerobic digestion.”
Ingredient science
At Tate & Lyle, Hampton noted, efforts to tackle food waste begin in the group’s agriculture networks, through efforts to improve yield improvement backed by data analysis, including sub-acre measurement in US corn production.
Hampton also highlighted the role of ingredient science in extending shelf life, particularly in markets without cold chain infrastructure, and the use of product carbon footprints to measure efficiency across supply chains.
“There’s a lot of data showing that if you shorten shelf life, you increase food waste,” he commented. “For us, that means starting at source – in agriculture – working with farmers to improve yields, cut waste and reduce the climate impact of food. Producing more, using less.”
The role of technology
As with so many other panels during the summit, technology featured prominently during the discussion, with Heffernan referencing AI-driven forecasting, dynamic pricing and other in-store tools in Tesco’s arsenal when it comes to tackling food waste.
“Recently, we launched an initiative where we make scanners available for avocados, partnering with a Dutch tech company so customers can scan and it tells you the ripeness of the avocado,” she noted. “There are so many examples of collaboration that are really helping to move us forward.” Read more here.
