_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Food Waste
of people in hours. Take the“ Food Waste Inspector”, the anonymous campaigner who started filming supermarket bins full of in-date food and posting the clips on Instagram and TikTok. Within months, he had more than 70,000 followers, attracted national headlines, and M & S and Waitrose had both launched investigations. That waste sat at the retail end, but the same risk runs through the length of the chain.
Pledges are made in the boardroom and kept in the warehouse
Food waste ranks among the most pressing challenges confronting the global food system, bearing enormous economic, environmental, and social costs. The UN estimates that 13.2 percent of food is lost between harvest and retail, with a further 19 percent then wasted in shops and households, and that food loss and waste generate eight-to-ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Tackling it demands action from industry leaders, and, by extension, their suppliers.
Boardroom promises are only as good as the warehouse behind them. For suppliers to deliver, the systems have to work for the world today. ■
John Burgess www. balloonone. com
John Burgess is Innovation Director at Balloon One. Balloon One is a UK supply chain technology specialist that helps distribution, manufacturing, retail and ecommerce businesses improve operational efficiency. It implements warehouse management, enterprise resource planning, transport management and automation solutions, enabling customers to streamline logistics, optimize inventory and build more resilient, scalable supply chains.
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