Greencore is joining other major UK food manufacturers and retailers to deliver a new network of “food waste champions” to help reduce the amount of food waste produced by the sectors.
The network of food waste champions will work within their organisations to cut back on the 1.1 billion tonnes of food waste that is produced across the food and drink retail and manufacturing sectors. The initiative has been backed by Government Food Waste Champion Ben Elliot and industry groups including WRAP and the British Retail Consortium.
WRAP’s chief executive Marcus Gover said: “The Luminary Programme has the potential to deliver long lasting behaviour change through encouraging more businesses and more sites to focus on the root causes of food surplus and waste. Company Shop is a Courtauld 2025 signatory and supporter of the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, and this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking and action that will help us collectively achieve our goal to halve food waste in the UK.”
The network will be overseen by the Company Shop Group, the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus stock, which will deliver a mentoring programme for the food champions. Funding will be provided by Defra.
Food waste champions will receive access to toolkits, activities and mentoring to tackle food waste, specifically to help harnessing hard-to-reach surplus within their internal organisation.
Greencore’s food waste champion, Krissy Polo-Tolley says: “Greencore’s participation in the Luminary Programme reinforces our commitment to halve our food waste by 2030, as set out in the United Nations Champions 12.3 Sustainable Development Goal. We have achieved a 20% reduction in food waste from our base year of 2017 to date, and our commitment to this target remains a key focus for us.”
