Bonduelle Fresh Americas Joins Walmart Commitment to Halve Food Loss and Waste
Today Bonduelle Fresh Americas, home of Ready Pac Foods, announced it has joined Walmart in the groundbreaking “10x20x30” initiative to root out food loss and waste from the supply chain. 10x20x30 is led by Walmart and more than 10 of the world’s biggest food retailers and providers, each having committed to engage at least 20 suppliers in a “whole supply chain” approach to cutting food loss and waste in half by 2030. Bonduelle Fresh Americas supplies Walmart with Ready Pac Foods Bistro® Bowl Salads and salad kits.
“Bonduelle Fresh Americas, along with the entire Bonduelle Group, is committed to preserving our planet’s resources. Among our commitments are specific and measurable actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the reduction of food waste and loss,” said Mary Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Bonduelle Fresh Americas. “We are driven by the belief ‘Nature is our Future,’ and we are determined to continually evolve our business model to build a better company for the world.”
Bonduelle Fresh Americas commits to a 50 percent reduction target in its own operations, to measure and publish its food loss and waste inventories and to create actionable strategies to reduce this waste. This includes reducing the amount of food waste we create in our facilities, increasing product donations to communities in need and providing food for animal feed.
The food retailers and providers behind 10x20x30 include AEON, Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, IKEA Food, Kroger, METRO AG, Migros (Turkey), Pick n Pay, The Savola Group, Sodexo, Tesco and Walmart. Among them are six of the largest food retailers in the world, the world’s 2nd largest food service provider and leading food retailers in regions such as southern Africa, the Middle East and Japan. Combined, participants operate in more than 80 countries.
10x20x30 was publicly launched at the 2019 annual food loss and waste summit hosted by Champions 12.3, a voluntary coalition of executives from business, government and civil society committed to raising ambition and motivating action to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which call for a 50 percent reduction in food loss and waste worldwide by 2030.
“Reducing the more than 1 billion tons of food that’s lost or wasted each year would bring big social, environmental and economic benefits – but bringing these benefits to scale requires action across the entire supply chain,” said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute, which serves as Secretariat for Champions 12.3. “I’m encouraged to see so many leading food retailers and suppliers committing to bold action. It’s exactly what the world needs to achieve the target of 50 percent reduction by 2030.”
Each year, one-third of all food produced in the world – around 1 billion tons of food – is lost or wasted every year, with significant environmental, economic and food security impacts. Each year, food waste and loss is responsible for nearly 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and approximately $940 billion in economic losses – even with 1 in 9 people undernourished worldwide.
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the urgency of addressing food loss and waste. Farm-level losses have increased in many countries as distribution has been disrupted and restaurants and other hospitality businesses have reduced operations. Addressing food loss and waste in supply chains is a key strategy for ensuring both a sustainable business and food future.
10x20x30 is aligned with the goals Bonduelle Fresh Americas is engaged in to improve sustainability. For example, Bonduelle Fresh Americas is also working to achieve zero waste in all of its manufacturing facilities by 2025. This means the goal is to divert more than 90 percent of waste from landfill and incineration.