Tesco donates unsold food to people in need using smart technology

Tesco, in collaboration with its charitable partners, donates unsold food to people using digital technologies. The Foodcloud smart application facilitates the entire process of donating food surpluses to people in need, from monitoring the amount of food in stores to signing documents.

An app available for both Android and iOS assists organizations in better planning the distribution of aid to those in need. The application also has the advantage of converting donated food into the number of portions or the impact of reducing food waste on the reduction of greenhouse gases.

"Tesco has been donating unsold food to people in need from all stores since 2019. Thanks to monitoring the amount of food surpluses, we have managed to reduce their amount by half so far and we are moving forward. We currently donate up to 90% of unsold food that is suitable for human consumption to people in need or as animal feed. The digitization of the donation process through Foodcloud helps us with its efficiency to help even more and direct as much good food as possible to people in a difficult life situation,” 

explains Michaela Lehotská, CSR manager of Tesco in Slovakia.

By digitizing processes, the chain saves tens of kilograms of paper on document printing each year.

In 2020, the chain will launch a pilot version of the application in ten locations in Slovakia. In addition to the Food Bank of Slovakia, the Foodcloud application has been actively used by 125 charitable organizations that are its partners since November of last year.

"From the start of the pilot testing in the first stores until March this year, Tesco donated more than 1,600 tons of unsold food to people in difficult life situations through the application. From the amount of food, the charitable partners prepared almost four million portions of food. By not throwing away food unnecessarily, we saved more than 808,000 kilograms of CO2, ” 

adds Michaela Lehotská.

Source: Tesco news