SPAR International has announced a worldwide partnership with food tech company Whywaste to support their food waste reduction strategy at retail. SPAR country organisations will be able to use Whywaste's digital solutions in their day-to-day operations to reduce food waste in stores. 

Portfolio of solutions

Whywaste provides a portfolio of solutions that addresses food waste-related challenges that occur in grocery retail. One part of the portfolio is an advanced digital date-checking app that identifies and keeps track of products that are about to reach their sell-by date. Identifying products at risk of reaching this date at an early stage helps retailers take the appropriate action to ensure that goods are sold rather than wasted. Results from SPAR stores using Whywaste’s solutions show that they have been able to reduce their food waste by up to 40%.

Partnering to fight food waste

Food waste is an issue that has risen on the agenda in food retail. The UN’s sustainable development goal 12.3 aims to halve global food waste by 2030. The UN reports that almost a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people are starving.

“We are truly excited about the new partnership with SPAR International. I think SPAR’s philosophy “Better Together” definitely also applies in the fight against food waste and believe that together SPAR and Whywaste can have a real impact on reducing the waste”, said Whywaste co-founder and CEO, Kristoffer Hagstedt.“That’s what we need from leaders in the industry, to lead in the right direction.”

Tom Rose, Head of International Operations at SPAR International commented:“At SPAR International we are always looking for new and innovative ways to meet the needs of our customers, which is why our partnership with Whywaste, an end-to-end digital solution for food waste in retail, is an ideal fit for us. Technology to support the green agenda is becoming a permanent fixture in retail and SPAR International is wholeheartedly behind this trend.”

This is the third partnership to support food waste reduction, following agreements with Gander and Too Good To Go, previously announced. To read more about SPAR’s overall responsible retailing strategy click on this link. An outline of the areas we focus on within our environmental impact reduction programme can be read here.