The Consumer Goods Forum Food Waste Coalition of Action (FWCOA) has launched its #TooGoodToWaste initiative, a food loss and waste education project designed to spur faster progress in minimizing waste among CGF members and their millions of customers.
The FWCOA has created a TooGoodToWaste page with information and resources to share with consumers, and food companies are being asked to use the hashtag in their consumer campaigns to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of food loss. According to the UN Environment Programme, approximately 17% of food is wasted at the retail and consumer levels, much of in households.
Members of the FWCOA Consumer Engagement working group, which includes major global retailers including Walmart, Majid Al Futtaim, Tesco and consumer goods companies such as Unilever, are among those supporting the initiative.
“By using the hashtag #TooGoodToWaste as we share knowledge, tips and advice on reducing household food waste, our Coalition of Action adds our voices to others calling for a greater global community of action targeting and changing specific behaviors that waste precious food,” according to a letter about the campaign signed on behalf of the FWCOA by co-sponsors Max Koeune, President and CEO of McCain Foods, and Ken Murphy, Group Chief Executive, Tesco.
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“The food waste challenge is a complex, shared, and global one – and so our approaches to tackling it must also be shared,” said Sharon Bligh, Director of Health and Sustainability at CGF in a statement. “This campaign is all about uniting members to gather practical insights that can drive faster collective progress. Every food company has a significant role to play in doing more to minimize food waste across their own operations, while also increasing consumer awareness and action.”
Other brands and retailers are employing their own initiatives to tackle the food waste issue. For example, Full Harvest expanded its online marketplace for commercial buyers to handle all grades of produce, from USDA Grade 1 to surplus and imperfect, in May 2023 as part of an effort to reduce food waste. Additionally, Albertsons deployed a fresh food predictive ordering solution in January 2023 to help cut food waste.
