British retail chain Tesco has announced it will bring potato suppliers Branston and Samsworths together, to reduce the food waste, by using all the production for mashed and prepared meals.
Mark Little, head of Food Waste Reduction department, explains on Tesco’s blog that potatoes come in all shapes and sizes and, previously, some of the extremely “wonky” ones would get left in the field. To solve the problem, the retail chain takes now more potatoes than ever before, with its “Perfectly Imperfect Range” program.
“We buy all of Branston’s potato crop with most going into our potato ranges. The rest are peeled and sent to Samworths to be mashed and used in our own brand ready meals. This increases the amount of crop used and saves edible produce being ploughed back into the field. It also secures a consistent supply of great mash for our customers,” Mark Little writes.
He mentions that Tesco brings together two of its suppliers to prevent wasting perfectly edible potatoes, as part of the company’s work to reduce food waste and tackle food poverty.
“But we wanted to go further, so we brought our grower Branston together with our ready meal supplier Samworths to use those “wonky” spuds as mash. Potatoes don’t have to be beautiful to taste lovely,” he writes.
