Food waste must be a core metric for businesses
Business leaders know what gets measured, gets managed. Yet while companies closely track margins, staff costs and stock levels, food waste is still too often treated as a secondary consideration – despite its clear connection to all three.
Recent announcements from major UK food-to-go operators, such as Greggs, point to a growing shift in how the industry is approaching this challenge, with food waste increasingly embedded into core operational metrics.
This kind of progress is encouraging and reflects a broader recognition that food waste is not just an environmental issue, but also a business one.
The scale of the issue is significant. From a business perspective, it also represents a major inefficiency, with food waste estimated to cost businesses globally $540bn this year.
But beyond the numbers, this is about how businesses define performance. When food waste becomes a tracked and visible metric, it allows teams to identify inefficiencies earlier, respond more effectively, and make more informed operational choices. This reflects a wider movement to integrate sustainability considerations into core business performance.
As more organisations continue to evolve how they measure success, there is an opportunity for the industry as a whole to broaden what good performance looks like – recognising that reducing food waste sits at the intersection of sustainability, efficiency, and long-term business resilience.
Chelsea Kerr, managing director, Too Good To Go UK & Ireland
The Tobacco & Vapes Bill
Reflecting on our year of campaigning, no one can say we weren’t loud enough. Appearing on national TV, presenting to the House of Lords, hand delivering more than 1,500 letters, all on top of the day job; we did everything we could to make the government understand our concerns with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
The most we received in return was a cursory reply from the Department of Health and Social Care. But the Department for Business and Trade? Total radio silence.
Nevertheless, I am proud of the hundreds of retailers that came together to stand up for our livelihoods. And we aren’t stopping here. The Bill may have passed, but with consultations and secondary legislation to come, we have a new opportunity to shape the law to better support small businesses, protect children from irresponsible sellers, and help Trading Standards crack down on illicit trade. What we need now is a robust licensing scheme.
Our year of campaigning, sending letters and rallying the retailer community to stand up for our industry has not been wasted. I am proud of every single retailer that showed up for this campaign – and the battle for our industry is far from over.
We retailers are in this together. When we become one voice, the government will have no choice but to listen to us.
Paul Cheema, independent retailer
Food system resilience
There is a significant amount of debate taking place in the wake of the Iran War about the impact on food systems. A ripple effect is taking place across the global food supply chain.
While there are certainly immediate and stark challenges to address, the industry must also see this latest shock as a wake-up call that shifts how we think about resilience in our food system. Moving from crisis response to long-term resilience will help to ensure the global food supply is better protected and supply chains are strengthened against any future shocks.
The industry should now look to the future and how resilience can be built into the system’s design. This is by no means an easy feat and requires collaboration across a value chain that is both globally connected and locally complex. An understanding of the reality at farm level is vital.
As the debate around food security continues among policymakers, businesses and producers, there is an opportunity to build for a better future. We must take the opportunity to address the weaknesses that are currently being exposed in the food system, or communities around the world will continue to bear the brunt of the impact.
Dionys Forster is director general at SAI Platform
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