The Consumer Goods Forum’s (CGF) Food Waste Coalition of Action, in conjunction with WRAP and the World Resources Institute (WRI), have established 13 June as a shared deadline for voluntary annual food waste reporting by retailers, manufacturers, hospitality and foodservice businesses.
The harmonised reporting deadline is seen as a ‘critical step toward streamlining food waste reporting’, the CGF said in a statement, helping to standardise how the industry tracks and reports food waste.
This level of transparency and collective action will be essential in order for businesses to meet the 2030 deadline for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 – to halve global per capita food waste, it added.
Transparency is key
“We know how important both transparency in reporting and collective action is in driving progress on food waste,” commented Ken Murphy, group CEO of Tesco, and Max Koeune, president and CEO of McCain Foods, co-sponsors of the CGF’s Food Waste Coalition of Action. “By embracing the harmonised reporting date and a consistent reporting approach, we can improve data quality and transparency, ultimately enabling better decision-making, greater accountability, and more impactful interventions.
“We want to drive meaningful progress across the food industry in tackling food waste, ensuring that we can act together with greater efficiency and scale to meet our 2030 commitments – and this is an important step in achieving that.”
As the CGF noted, the establishment of a shared date marks significant progress in the global ‘Target, Measure, Act’ initiative, a framework that empowers companies to set reduction goals, measure outcomes, and act decisively.
‘Uniquely placed’
Catherine David, director of behaviour change and business programmes at WRAP, added that businesses are “uniquely placed” to influence both their supply chains and consumers’ behaviours.
“We are delighted to cement our close partnerships with the CGF and WRI with this important move that strengthens our shared ambition to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3,” she commented.
Elsewhere, Liz Goodwin, senior fellow and director of food loss and waste at WRI, underscored the importance of data in driving initiatives such as this.
“Without good data, businesses are shooting in the dark and may miss critical opportunities to reduce the amount of food they waste,” she commented. “This shared reporting date will help bring alignment across the private sector, making it easier for businesses to track performance, share insights, and ultimately accelerate action toward SDG 12.3.”
The CGF’s Food Waste Coalition brings together 21 of the world’s largest CPG manufacturers and retailers, united in a mission to halve food loss and waste. Read more here.
