Putting food waste tactics to the test

Putting food waste tactics to the test

When it comes to cutting food waste, what works and what doesn’t? 

It’s one thing to know customers want help reducing food waste and bills. It’s quite another to find the best ways of doing that.

Over the past few years, we have been working with the community in Swandlincote, Derbyshire, to put various techniques to the test, while WRAP (the Waste Resource Action Partnership) independently monitored them to find out what worked.

Champions of change

Some trials involved using events and education to champion waste cutting:

  • Eight Food Saver Champions, employed by South Derbyshire District Council courtesy of a grant from Sainsbury's, spread the message in an orange van known as ‘Gina’. The roving champions engaged thousands of local people and put food waste under the spotlight.
  • A Fab Foods scheme involved pupils in local schools. At Eureka Primary, one of the first schools to undertake the project, food waste was reduced by 37 per cent in just six months.
  • At a Feed the 1,000 event at Swadlincote Sainsbury’s, we dished out 1,000 portions of food – created from foods often thrown away – to show how cutting waste doesn’t mean skimping on taste.
  • And we trialled a community fridge, to encourage local businesses to share surplus food.
Food Saver Champions from Swadlincote in front of their orange Waste less, Save more van, affectionately known as Gina

Tech tactics

We also tested technologies, with high-tech ideas including smart fridges and cutting edge apps.

Another successful project was more low-tech: our plan to give away 15,000 fridge thermometers. Of a sample, 22 per cent found their fridge was at the wrong temperature and 94 per cent adjusted it as a result. We later handed out one million thermometers in stores.

“It’s such a simple idea but can make such a difference.”

Fridge thermometer tester
Rebekah Muldowney

We also tried a range of websites and apps. For example, we worked with Google to create Food Rescue, to help people discover what to cook with leftovers.

We also trialled Winnow, an app which helped families reduce more than 68 per cent of food waste, and connected neighbours with Olio, an app to share surplus food.

We’re now going to use what we’ve learned to inspire other towns across the UK. 

68%

reduction in food waste from the first families who trialled the Winnow app.