Food waste

We want ALL our food
to be EATEN

Did you know that food waste accounts for more global greenhouse gas emissions than aviation? The problem with throwing out food is that all the energy and resources used to produce it are wasted. What’s more, if food rots in landfill, it produces methane, which is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.

That’s why tackling this problem has been one of our priorities. We were one of the first supermarkets to commit to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, created by sustainability charity WRAP, in 2018. All of our own-brand suppliers have now signed up to it.

The Roadmap works with businesses to encourage them to make waste-saving changes to their shops and supply chains, in order to reach the target of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030.

This builds on our previous commitment to the Courtauld Agreement, launched in 2015, which initially aimed to reduce food waste by at least a fifth by 2025, but this has now been extended to join WRAP’s UK-wide mission to halve food waste by 2030.

Thanks to our partnership with the charity FareShare, which began in 2017, we have been able to turn surplus food in our shops into meals for those in need. Leftover food in stores is scanned using an app, so that local charities can pick it up. Anything left over after that is offered to our Partners.

How we're HELPING to HALVE UK food waste

We work with FareShare, a charity dedicated to fighting hunger and reducing food waste across the UK. So far, over 16 million meals from surplus food have been donated from Waitrose shops and distribution centres. That’s over 7,000 tonnes of food, that have saved over 16.4 tonnes of CO2 from being produced.
40 Waitrose shops now work with Olio Food Waste Heroes to give away their surplus, which has led to 43 tonnes of food being rescued.
Our A Little Less Than Perfect range to avoid fruit and vegetables being thrown out because of their appearance. This wonky fruit and veg, including apples, onions, carrots and strawberries, may look unusual, but it’s grown to our usual high standards and always tastes good.

To prevent meat being wasted, we buy whole animals from our livestock farmers. As a result, we stock 'forgotten cuts' such as pig’s cheek, beef short ribs and calves’ liver to help our customers become more sustainable meat eaters.
By looking closely at our supply chains, we’ve been able to identify areas where food is wasted, and prevent it. We’ve significantly reduced wastage of produce such as apples and trout – all helping us to progress towards our commitment to halve food waste in our supply chains by 2030.
We support Food Waste Action Week and we're committed to helping customers reduce food waste.

Let's work TOGETHER

Our habits at home matter, too, even more than you might realise. 70% of all food wasted in the UK takes place in households, according to WRAP. Whether it’s soggy salad forgotten in the fridge, uneaten meals that are scraped off our plates, or bread that doesn’t make it. Make the most of every last mouthful with our tips, ideas and recipes.