A food industry coalition launched to tackle food poverty after an appeal by King Charles has announced an ambitious new target to provide 30 million meals a year by 2028, The Grocer can reveal.
It also emerged that 50 projects to divert thousands of tonnes of food that had previously been going to anaerobic digestion and animal feed have been launched since Alliance Food Sourcing, a body involving supermarkets, manufacturers and food redistribution companies, got off the ground.
Last week, The Grocer revealed four major supermarkets were joining forces for a new food poverty campaign in what they claimed was an “unparalleled” collaboration, to generate funding for the organisation to provide surplus food to thousands of charities.
Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose launched the campaign, called Let’s Make a Meal of It, this week. It will allow their millions of customers to donate funds to people facing hunger, online and at checkouts.
However, the alliance has focused on visiting food factories across the UK to identify ways to roll out new practices, at scale, that can divert food surplus to help tackle hunger.
Nicola Robinson, director of Alliance Food Sourcing, which is overseen by the IGD, FareShare and The Felix Project, said the organisation was already generating the equivalent of 10 million meals a year. A series of well-known manufacturers and retailers had agreed to changes in practice that resulted in food being diverted for human consumption, she added.
Projects include Compleat Food Group’s introduction of new practices to redistribute “wonky” pork pie products to FareShare. Barfoots and its packaging partner Saica Flex have begun using surplus butternut squash and sweet potato to create a new ‘rubble’ which charities can use in stews, curries or salads.
Meanwhile, Waitrose has changed to new line changeover practices, which has resulted in a new “production line” of pasta being produced for FareShare, which is not sold in stores.
Robinson said: “We know that 4.6 million tonnes of food goes to waste in the UK before it reaches people’s plates, with 15% of this occurring at manufacturing.
“In our conversations, we see that the food industry has started to undergo a mindset shift. Food waste, surplus and spare capacity is no longer something to suppress in isolation, but can also be a powerful opportunity to tackle food insecurity, drive sustainability, and spark valuable collaboration.
“Through delivering this food into FareShare, which redistributes surplus food to 8,000 charities across the UK, companies can make a meaningful difference to supporting local communities while combating the environmental impact of food poverty.
“I’m very proud of the industry’s resposne so far and confident that much more can be done.”
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