We throw away too much food. Here are 5 tips on how you can reduce food waste in your store
Food waste has been a hot topic the last few years. Corporations and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the huge amounts of food we waste. But also, its consequences on our society and the environment. Here at Whywaste, when we see a problem, we want to solve it. A problem means that there’s room for improvement. From the beginning our mission has been to make it profitable to reduce food waste. We do this by providing retailers with a toolbox of digital solutions. Years of close collaborations with our partner stores has made us a lot wiser. So, since this is a fight we can't win on our own, here’s our 5 best tips on how to start reducing your store's food waste.
Talk about it
Knowledge is key if you want to inspire change. Engage and educate your staff in the issue and make them a vital part of the process. This will make your personnel more likely to make an extra effort and make them feel included in the environmental work. Ask them about their ideas and suggestions on the matter so that you're in it together.
Digitise
With the help of digital solutions, you make it easier for the personnel to follow and maintain strict routines. This makes even date checking fun! Check if your chain offers a tool for this and start using them. If they don’t, there are us and other companies that offer several tools that can make things easier for you.
Setup routines
Make sure you set up proper routines and make everyone aware of how and why it's important to follow them.
Clear routines make it easier when onboarding new personnel. It also makes the work more foolproof. Set up routines on when and how to do the date checking. What do you do when you find products that expire? Cover everything from discounts to changes in the POS system.
Numbers and statistics, folks
You need to keep track of your waste numbers to be able to work proactively with waste. Make sure that when marking products down you can actually follow the sales in the POS. It is very common that this is not setup properly. It’s important that you know the cause of the price adjustments so that you get the correct statistics. If you want to get to the root of the problem you should consider using a digital system to simplify this process. There are a few providers of these services out there and Whywaste is one of them.
Donate or use it
To reduce food waste you want to find products as early as possible so you can take action before it’s too late. But there will always be products that won’t get sold. How can these products still come to use? Do you have a kitchen in your store that can cook a meal with the products? Can you team up with a local charity that can use the products somehow? Collaboration is almost always a win-win!
Now go get started on your journey towards becoming a more sustainable food retailer! We hope that these tips have given you some insights on where to start.
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