Using artificial intelligence, repurposing food and donating surplus food to charities is how some of South Africa’s biggest retailers are addressing food insecurity and reducing food waste.
The Shoprite Group has adopted a “multifaceted approach” to tackle these pressing issues, according to Sanjeev Raghubir, its head of sustainability and corporate social investment. To prevent food waste at the source, it has adopted a “systematic and hierarchical” approach to managing surplus food at its stores and distribution centres.
“As a first priority, we proactively prevent food waste before it occurs. We follow a dynamic and seasonally responsive approach to stock management. Artificial intelligence helps us predict customer preferences based on the time of year,” he said. During the summer for example, the retailer stocks up on fruit salads, while in the winter, soups take precedence.
This approach, Raghubir said, minimises waste by ensuring that its offerings align with customer demand.
“In addition to seasonal adaptation, artificial intelligence and machine learning assist us in predicting sales trends and automating replenishment orders. This ensures that we always have stock available for customers, while simultaneously reducing the risk of overstocking and waste.”
Various reuse options are explored for food that doesn’t meet the group’s display standards but is still perfectly edible. “Blemished bananas, for example, can find new life in banana bread, while bruised apples can be transformed into juice or used in salads.”
Food that cannot be repurposed and is fit for human consumption is donated to charitable organisations. In the last financial year, the Shoprite Group donated more than R225 million worth of surplus food to 544 beneficiary organisations.
Any food that is unsuitable for human consumption but remains safe and nutritious is sent to farmers to feed animals. “Weekly, we send approximately 44 tonnes of food waste, primarily dried goods, such as pasta, cereals, and flour, to be converted into animal feed. Used cooking oil is repurposed for industrial applications, including the production of biodiesel.”
In the last financial year, the Shoprite Group sent 236 tonnes of food waste to composting facilities. “These measures have had a significant impact on both food waste reduction and environmental conservation. We diverted 12 500 tonnes of food from landfills in the past year,” he said.
The Shoprite Group is aligned with the United Nations sustainable development goals, he said. “We are particularly committed to the target of halving food waste at retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses across the food chain by 2030. We are proud to say that we are well on our way to achieving this important goal.”
‘No edible food should end up in a landfill’
Food waste is a high priority issue for Woolworths, said Feroz Koor, the group head of sustainability at Woolworths Holdings. “And as part of our Good Business Journey, we are committed to finding ways to reduce food waste and promote food security. We monitor and report on our food waste as part of our sustainability targets to ensure ongoing improvements and reductions.”
Its goal is to ensure that no edible food ends up in a landfill. Koor said these initiatives include its surplus food programme in stores and across the supply chain in partnership with suppliers. He said the farms adopt agricultural practices in line with the company’s Farming for the Future programme to address food waste and build climate resilience.
It, too, partners with FoodForward SA with their mission to recover edible surplus food and distribute it to community organisations in both urban and rural areas nationwide. “We adopt the food waste utilisation hierarchy, which prioritises food use and food waste avoidance or reduction in the first instance, and secondly the redistribution of surplus food for human consumption.”
As a founding signatory of the South African Food Waste Voluntary Agreement and Friends of Champions 12.3, Woolworths is committed to halving food waste to landfill by 2030, which is aligned to the sustainable development goal 12.3, he said.
Woolworths, too, encourages its suppliers to sign and commit to the voluntary agreement, which has led to 54 of Woolworths Food suppliers becoming signatories. This equates to nearly 60% of Woolworths’ food production, he said.
“We approach food waste on a number of fronts: with customers, packaging choices, our stores, and through the supply chain. In terms of our customer, we ensure there is clear on-pack information pertaining to ‘sell by’, ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates.”
Koor said that to promote the sale of products when they reach their sell by date, the price of some protein products such as meat, are reduced at the end of the sell by day. Wherever possible, packaging is chosen that will extend the shelf life of its products to reduce waste.
“For example, wrapping a cucumber in recyclable plastic packaging reduces the cucumber’s respiration rate, resulting in a shelf life that is three times longer than if it wasn’t wrapped.”
Woolworths donates surplus food — the food that comes off its shelves because it’s reached its sell-by date but not its best-before date — to 890 local charities across South Africa, daily. Last year this edible food donation accounted for 87% of the food not sold in Woolworths stores, Koor said.
The balance, which was deemed as not being fit for human consumption, is collected by service providers for destinations such as animal feed, composting and the conversion of our rotisserie chicken fat into biodiesel.
“In our supply chain we minimise food waste through various means such as effective temperature control and efficient stocking and distribution systems. We have also encouraged our suppliers to work with FoodForwardSA for the redistribution of their edible surplus food. Lowering food waste is an on-going priority across our entire value chain, including suppliers, operations and with customers.”
Fighting hunger
In its 2023 integrated annual report, Pick n Pay’s chairperson, Gareth Ackerman, said that over the past four years, it had reduced food waste by nearly 30%, against its 2019 baseline, as “we work steadily towards our target of 50% by 2030”.
“We have also donated more than 880 tonnes of edible surplus food to FoodForward SA this year, valued at more than R39 million. We are working with the government to change some of the regulations, which would allow more edible surplus food to go to those who really need it. I’m really proud of this achievement,” he said.
Pick n Pay was the first South African retailer to sign up to the 10x20x30 Food Waste Initiative, collaborating with suppliers to reduce global food waste by 50% by 2030.
Reducing food waste, the report said, “improves our productivity and assists in the fight against hunger”. The report, too, noted how the unstable supply of power and water is “leading to increased operating costs, higher levels of food waste and unreliable product availability”.
On how Makro deals with food waste, Brian Leroni, vice-president of group corporate affairs at Massmart Holdings, said: “Dry groceries that are safe for consumption are donated to FoodBank for distribution through their network. Expired fresh produce is composted by an accredited waste service provider; fresh food (that can’t be composted, such as meat) is destroyed by accredited waste service providers in line with health and safety regulations, which includes safe destruction verification.”