Ocado, the online supermarket, has revealed their food waste figures, which are the lowest within their industry. They published their food waste figures, which stand at only 0.02 per cent, equivalent to 1 in 6,000 food items.
Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility said: “Our business model is built around efficiency and low waste. By continually improving our technology, processes, and our relationships with suppliers, we’ve been able to reduce our food waste to practically zero – I believe we have the lowest total food waste figures in our industry. Now we’re helping customers reduce their food waste at home too, by giving them more time to keep fresh food in the fridge.”
All of the food is packed in one of their three warehouse, each of which are equipped with advanced technology to ensure that food arrives to customers as fresh as possible. Fresh food can arrive directly from suppliers and be sent out for delivery within five hours, and throughout this process the food is kept at the optimum temperature to maintain freshness.
The combination of this efficient business model and their dedicated approach to combatting the issue of food waste has produced such impressively low figures. This means that food arrives to customers and stays fresher for longer, which helps customers reduce their food waste.
Helen White, Special Advisor on Household Food Waste at WRAP, said: “Ocado’s approach to driving down food waste in their supply chain has resulted in impressively low food waste figures. By guaranteeing product life, providing customers with clear information and using innovative packaging solutions they are helping us all to do our bit to drive down food waste too.”
She added: “At home, one of the main reasons for binning food is that we don’t use it in time; yet there are some really simple things we can all do, such as making sure we store our food in the best way, to making the most of the food we buy.”