Have you ever realized how much food your business is wasting every year? Probably more than you realize! It contributes to the waste management burdens on a significant level globally. According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, wasted food costs add up to US$936 billion a year. It is burdening the food management system and causing major threats to global issues like climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. The UN is urging countries across the globe to cut the waste in half by 2030. ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning) like LS Retail ERP have proven itself to be effective in tackling this situation. It is recommended to contact LS Retail Gold Partners as they are backed up with a strong track record.
It is shocking to note that the United Kingdom alone is throwing away food that makes up to 190 million meals a year. The edible surplus is going into animal feeds, landfills, or plants.
Food wastage is a global issue that needs to be tackled as quickly as possible, but it also needs a balancing strategy as well. By their very nature, supermarkets tend to stock up varied materials with different shelf lives and end up throwing up food that is no longer considered fresh. They need to find a suitable solution to guide them in buying relevant items in relevant amounts while fulfilling customer demands and providing fresh material at all costs. We have compiled a list of solutions for you to minimize waste as much as possible.
#1 Manage Expiry Dates Properly
One of the major factors leading to food waste is expiry dates. It has been estimated that 87% of food that is wasted from grocery stores is because of them having to dispose of expired products.
The first thing that the stores can do is to educate their customers about what exactly the expiry date means. Many consumers do know the difference between sell-by, used-by, and best before dates. However, there are still people who are confused between them. Thus, supermarkets can assist buyers by standardizing this information while addressing it to their customers in clear and simple formats.
Supermarkets are also inclining towards software such as LS Retail ERP that can track expiry dates and help them create discounts and exclusive offers on individual items that are about to expire, so they can be sold while reducing food wastage. Tools like Dynamics Pricing grab customer attention and encourage them to purchase near-to-expire items over fresh products.
#2 Analyze Waste Patterns with LS Retail ERP
LS Retail ERP specialized in collecting and analyzing waste. Even Grocery stores these days are realizing the importance of collecting data from different touchpoints like their eCommerce site, vendor data, smart shelves, and loyalty programs. However, there are still some who prefer to operate on spreadsheets or paper printouts. By doing so, they miss capturing essential data which could deliver special insight to boost their efficiency and profit at the same time.
By optimizing demand planning and advanced data analytics solutions, they can use the collected and big data to predict demand, identify waste patterns, and order exactly the amount they need.
#3 Shift to Modern Appliances
According to a study conducted by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the grocery retail sector sucks up to 2% of the globally used energy, which is even more than what data centers across the world consume. Energy and asset monitoring solutions throughout the stores play a key role for engineering solutions worldwide food system (which is under massive pressure)
The key challenge is to maintain food quality and safety while using the least amount of energy. Modern refrigerators can help significantly with this as they are reliable and keep food at the current temperature. LS Retail ERP can take this a step ahead with its essential and actionable insights on how to enhance energy performance.
FAO declares that over the past 5 years alone, ERP Solutions have managed to save up to US$37 million (about $0.11 per person in the US) by reducing food waste.
#4Train Your Staff to Cut Food Waste
The food and packaging damage is most likely to occur during the transition phase. One of the most common mistakes that staff members make is to place heavy objects right over the easily breakable or easily bruised produce such as eggs and fresh fruits. This can end the writing of the entire box of fresh produce. This affair is very costly.
Food retailers can avoid scenarios like this by professionally training their staff. Getting staff on board and introducing methods to curb food waste can bring a meaningful change.
For Instance, in Germany, Metro Cash and Carry staff is trained in all aspects of food safety and hygiene while storing, processing, and storing. Thus, reducing loss of food and a greater volume of marketable products.
#5 Donate the Surplus
One of the best things supermarkets can do to reduce food waste is to donate their surplus for human consumption. In the UK, the top ten supermarket chains are donating less than 6% of their surplus for human consumption.
A representative of Tesco, the UK supermarket that gives away the highest surplus of its surplus food quotes “We first published our food waste data in 2013 and believe that only by understanding the hotspots can we reduce waste” then he also mentioned “Our priority is to reduce this surplus through optimizing our forecasting, ordering and ‘reduce to clear’ processes. Our target is that no food safe for human consumption will be wasted and [if you deduct 16,497 tons sent to animal feed and 9,661 tons given to colleagues] we are now 77% of the way there.” To achieve this, they used LS Retail ERP.
Conclusion
The world’s food issues need a radical solution throughout the supply chain. Using technology like LS Retail ERP can track inventory and its expiry date as well as provide meaningful insight to help you reduce waste could bring a significant difference. This Retail Management Software is one of the best solutions used to curb food waste across various supermarkets. Contact Trident Information Systems for further information. We are the LS Central Diamond Implementation Partner and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Implementation Partner.
