Aldi is halving food waste, but is it enough?

Aldi has pledged to cut food waste in half by 2030 in the UK.

The discount store aims to reduce operational waste across all of its’ UK and Ireland stores by 50% in the next 12 years, and set out its plan to do so.

Aldi plans to work with Wrap, a non-profit resource improvement agency, to best manage its’ supply chain, by furthering partnerships and cutting food waste, and the cost of food and drink, to help the UK achieve the “UN Sustainable Development Goal”.

This aims to unite suppliers and logistics providers in making a more efficient, and therefore, less wasteful process for putting food on shelves and deciding where it goes once it is past its sell by date.

Realistic, or brand strategy?

Questions have been raised as to whether the supermarket can deliver on the 50% target.

However, Aldi looks to build on goals it already achieved through its “Love Food, Hate Waste” initiative. The chain has already hit goals such as donating 112 tonnes of food to FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste, and prevented 1,602 tonnes of surplus food going to waste, equivalent to 3.7 million meals.

In addition, Aldi advertises online how much money the average UK family could save per month if they threw away less food. For example, an average family of four could save up to £60 per month.

Given the 12 year timeline to achieve its’ goal, and long serving partnerships with key instigators for reducing food waste, the 50% claim seems like more than just a grab for market share.

A new industry standard

Consumers are becoming ever more aware of the effects of wasting food, given 78% of UK consumers (77% globally) try to minimize household food waste most or all of the time, according to GlobalData’s Q3 2016 global consumer survey.

This is leading to supermarkets pledging to cut as much waste as possible in all aspects of the supply chain, to boost consumer perception of their brand, while also cutting long term costs.

For example, Tesco, the UK’s leading supermarket, has pledged to end wasting food that is still fit for consumption as early as March 2018, while also offering free food to staff and giving leftovers to charities or using for fuel when the food brakes down and produces useful gasses.

With a growing global trend in waste reduction, this move by Aldi looks like a step in the right direction, and builds on foundations that have been in place for a number of years.