Tesco launches surplus food to feed facility

The site, in Northamptonshire, has the capacity to process about 1,000 tons of surplus food weekly, transforming it into pulp or crumb for animal consumption.

Additionally, meat and fish surplus will be used in household pet food through a separate process.

Deliveries to the facility will be made every week from early November, with around 40% of the site capacity to be utilised with Tesco surplus. This means the site has the potential to expand by accepting waste from other retailers and manufacturers.

Claire Lorains, group quality and sustainability director at Tesco, encouraged other businesses to make use of the facility to maximize its impact, while William Wykes, director at RenEco, highlighted the environmental benefits of the project, in that it reduces the need for traditional feed ingredients, which, he claimed, are more carbon-intensive to produce.

Food waste hierarchy

Tesco said this initiative aligns with its commitment to the WRAP food waste hierarchy, ensuring that edible food goes to humans first.

The company set out ambitious goals on food waste; it is looking to ensure that 85% of unsold food safe for human consumption in the UK is redistributed to humans or animals by December 2025, it aims to reduce food waste from its own operations by 50% by December 2025 in relation to its 2016/17 baseline. It will work in partnership with our suppliers to halve food waste in its supply chains by December 2030 and increase the number of suppliers reporting a reduction and it will also work in collaboration with food banks and regional charities to help feed people by redistributing food to local communities around the world.

Beyond the UK, the supermarket chain has been rolling out food waste reduction initiatives across the group, in its stores in Ireland and Central Europe. 

“In Hungary, we’ve recently been working with Grinsect to trial the use of insect farming to reduce food waste. In early 2023, we adapted our operating model to launch this innovative concept in 13 stores, sending surplus produce and bakery products to Black Soldier Flies, which are then turned into insect protein and used as animal feed,” reads its Food Waste Report 2024​​. 

Tesco has been evaluating insects as a potential means of reducing food waste​ ​in the UK as well. 

Tesco terminated deal with its former food waste contractor 

Transparency is important in the waste resource business, acknowledged Tesco. And, in January this year, the retailer announced that it had terminated its relationship with a food waste processor in the UK after an internal review found that Tesco’s food, which it believed was being processed for feed, was actually going to anaerobic digestion.

While anaerobic digestion plays a role in energy recovery and prevents food from going to landfill, it is categorized as waste under the food waste hierarchy, said Tesco. As it had worked with the processor over several years, the retailer said it felt it was appropriate to exclude animal feed from its food waste reduction data. As a result, after removing feed from its reported numbers for 2022/23, Tesco’s Group food waste reduction was 18% against its baseline – a number significantly lower than its previously reported reduction of 45%. “We expect our reduction this year will be similarly affected.”

Waitrose also ended a trial​​ with the same food waste processor, reported The Grocer in February.