Food loss and waste reduction through innovation and collaboration at Unilever

For the first time in decades, world hunger is on the rise yet nearly 700 million people are obese and each year, one-third of the total food the world produces – around 1.3 billion tonnes – is wasted. In 2015, we helped to shape the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Food Waste Resolution. This Resolution commits to halving disposed food waste by 2025 in retail and manufacturing operations, and to supporting food waste reductions at consumer level and across supply chains. 

In 2016, our benchmark year, we disposed of 363 g food waste per tonne of food produced from our 165 food manufacturing operations. In 2019, we disposed of 193 g food waste per tonne of food produced from 141 food manufacturing operations – a 47% reduction compared to 2016. We send most of our food waste for reuse, recycling and energy recovery – that is, energy generated from the incineration process.