“Kaufland Bulgaria” has saved 11 million pieces or kilograms of food from landfill mainly through its price reduction system, in which the approaching expiration date leads to reductions ranging from 40% to 99% This was announced by the executive director of “Kaufland Bulgaria” Ivan Chernev at the presentation of the new UN global report on food waste.
The Schwartz Group’s goal, of which Kaufland is a part, is to reduce the amount of food that ends up in the trash by 2030 by another 50 percent compared to 2018, he said.
In 2022, 1 billion tons of food will go to waste worldwide, while at the same time 700 million people go hungry, said Darina Georgieva, executive director of the Bulgarian Network for the UN Global Compact.
60% of this food was thrown away by households, with restaurants and other food preparation businesses accounting for 28% of these amounts and retail for 12%. In practice, 17% of all produced food ends up in the trash, along with all the resources and effort that went into it, Georgieva said.
The UN report says more food is thrown away in urbanized areas than elsewhere, and that food waste is greater in warmer countries than in northern ones.
In Bulgaria, the amount of wasted food is 478 thousand tons, i.e. amount to 68 kg per person per year. This is still a decrease compared to 88 kg per person from the previous year, Georgieva said.
Kaufland has several systems in place to prevent food wastage. One is through the smart “Auto Dispo” system, which helps the retail chain to forecast and plan the exact quantities of goods to order.
In order to shorten the delivery time, we mainly work with local suppliers. The correct packaging and the precise distribution of the quantities of goods between the branches also play a role.
Kaufland has an automated product expiration tracking system that keeps such products off the shelves. When a product nears its expiration date, it is released to specially marked stands at a deep discount.
If, however, it is seen that this food cannot be sold, it is donated. For this purpose, the chain works with the “Faithful Guardian” food bank, which since 2019 has launched a campaign to donate food directly to poor families, not through institutions. In this way, over 4 tons of food products were used last year, Nikolay said Nikolov from the “Faithful Guardian” association.
“Kaufland Bulgaria” also supports the children’s educational campaign “The place of food is not in the garbage”. In Sofia, this campaign has already covered 4 thousand students and is also entering kindergartens.
The last stage of the food, which can neither be sold nor donated and is of completely biological origin, is to give it to the municipal installation for biodegradable waste Khan Bogrov, said Ivan Chernev.
