In the UK, over six billion meals' worth of edible food goes to waste before making it off farms. Every year. But it's not just edible crops that are squandered: food producers often end up with by-products, ingredients and packaging they can't use or don't need. To tackle that end of the waste problem, Tesco just launched a new online marketplace that matches suppliers who have goods they'd like to get rid of, with others who can use them.
Suppliers can advertise surplus stock for sale and post requests for anything they need. One of the first listings on Tesco Exchange was by G's Group, which makes pickled beetroots. Since the beetroots are peeled before pickling, the producer is left with tons of beetroot peelings that could be used as cattle feed by a livestock farm.
The British supermarket chain works with over 3,500 suppliers, so Tesco Exchange has the potential to divert a significant amount of usable products out of waste streams. As Sarah Bradbury, Tesco Quality Director, points out: "Excess stock or waste for one supplier could be a valuable commodity to another. By linking different farmers, producers and manufacturers together, our suppliers can find new ways to trim their bills, reduce waste and keep delivering great value for our customers."
