The Food Waste Free United foundation and the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands have started a project together with supermarkets and medium-sized bakeries which share the ambition to do business as waste-free as possible. The entrepreneurs have come up with solutions against bread waste and will test these in practice, in order to ultimately inspire the entire sector.

Six supermarket entrepreneurs and seven bakers participate in the project. During the first brainstorming sessions that took place, participants came up with concrete ideas. For example:

• Introduce waste coaches in store, who educate consumers about portion sizes and storage methods.
• Train cashiers to immediately give a discount on products close to their ‘best before’ date (without requiring the use of electronic shelf labels or algorithms).
• Scale up the implementation of the pilot project of selling Fresh Frozen Bread in more stores. This pilot is already tested in supermarkets, where it ensures a stable bread waste reduction of 66%.

In the next phase of the project, the entrepreneurs will test the proposed solutions.

Eventually, Food Waste Free United wants to scale up the results of this project with all the retailers and bakers throughout the Netherlands. In the context of the impact-oriented approach of the Dutch foundation, bread plays an important role as it is one of the most wasted products.

© Food Waste Free United