Food redistribution is a win-win solution for food waste

11th May 2012

Companies, charities and individuals can all benefit from the redistribution of surplus food to those who need it.

Tonnes of fresh produce is consigned to the garbage heap on a consistent basis and it doesn't take an environmental activist to work out that wasting produce on this scale is a sub-optimal use of the world's natural and financial resources. And yet, this happens all the time. Why?

Wasting food means wasting money... Surely no business would deliberately cause food waste?

Unfortunately, often, the company responsible for causing waste in fact bears none of the cost of doing so. The farmer and middle man lose money, but the supermarket simply gets their produce from another supplier.

In the meantime some businesses are taking measures into their own hands to try to use up more 'reject' vegetables and avoid being party to food waste. Waitrose has been flogging 'weather blemished' apples, explaining to customers that nature brings forth variety, not uniformity.

Food waste can be seen as a massive problem but within it also lay great opportunities. The solutions are simple and positive, from the farm to the fork.

Read the full article here.