Last Chance to Join Us at SB'24 San Diego!

General Mills, Nestlé, Walmart CEOs Lead Coalition to End Food Waste Worldwide

The Coalition of Action to End Food Waste aims to enact measures that benefit the environment and the global economy, and ensure more food makes it to stores and onto consumers’ tables.

The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) has launched a CEO-led Coalition of Action on Food Waste, comprised of 14 of the world’s largest retailers and manufacturers with the goal of halving per capita global food loss at the retailer and consumer levels.

Food waste remains a critical environmental, social and economic issue worldwide. A third of food produced is never eaten, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tonnes of food lost each year — which represents an economic cost to the global economy of US$940 billion. Food waste also adds 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually; so, if food waste were a country, its carbon footprint would be third only to China and the US.

New technologies and innovations continue to emerge that aim to curtail food waste throughout the value chain, but they remain piecemeal and have yet to be scaled enough to make a real dent.

This new Coalition, with its members’ global reach and influence, aims to finally move the needle. In 2015, CGF launched a resolution to mitigate the roughly 40 percent of food wasted globally by agreeing to halve food waste within the operations of its 400 retailer and manufacturer members by 2025, and to support wider UN Goals on the issue.  This new Coalition will build off of those efforts, as well as those of Champions 12.3 — a long-time CGF partner and multi-stakeholder organisation working to reach UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 — and call for standardized date labelling.

the exciting potential of cultivated, fermented and plant-based protein innovation

Join us as Aleph Farms, the Better Meat Co, the Good Food Institute and Plantible Foods discuss the latest advancements in cultivated, plant-based, and fermentation-derived proteins — and how incorporating alternative proteins can help brands significantly reduce environmental impacts, while conserving natural resources — Tuesday, Oct. 15 at SB'24 San Diego.

The 14 initial members of the Coalition are Ahold Delhaize, Barilla, Bel Group, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Majid Al Futtaim, McCain Foods, Merck Animal Health, Metro AG, Migros Ticaret, Nestlé, Sainsbury, Tesco and Walmart.

Through their participation in the Coalition, members have committed to fulfill three Coalition commitments:

The Coalition is also creating regional working groups to drive implementation at the local level, and to help engage key stakeholders in North America, Latin America, and China and Japan.

The Coalition is sponsored at the CGF Board level by Dave Lewis, Group Chief Executive of Tesco and Chair of Champions 12.3; and McCain President and CEO Max Koeune. The Coalition Steering Committee is co-chaired by Kellogg’s Francisco Cordero and Ahold Delhaize USA’s Brittni Furrow. CGF Managing Director Wai-Chan Chan has also become Champions 12.3’s latest “Champion.”

Learn more about the Coalition of Action on Food Waste here.

Upcoming Events

October 14-17, 2024
SB'24 San Diego
US Event
More Information

December 11-12, 2024
SB Member Network: Shifting Customer Behavior and Demand December Member Meeting
Member Event
More Information

March 18-19, 2025
SB'25 Tokyo Marunouchi
More Information

Related Stories

These Startups Are Mycoremediating Impacts of the Building Industry CIRCULAR ECONOMY
These Startups Are Mycoremediating Impacts of the Building Industry
Kiehl’s Urges Consumers: ‘Don’t Rebuy. Just Refill’ MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Kiehl’s Urges Consumers: ‘Don’t Rebuy. Just Refill’
Report: Reverse Logistics Integral to Accelerating Circular Fashion CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Report: Reverse Logistics Integral to Accelerating Circular Fashion
Bridgestone Partners to Create Closed-Loop Ecosystem for Tires CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Bridgestone Partners to Create Closed-Loop Ecosystem for Tires
Unilever Partners to Scale Circular Packaging Solutions in Global South CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Unilever Partners to Scale Circular Packaging Solutions in Global South
Report: Apparel Circularity Schemes Not Quite Meeting the Moment CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Report: Apparel Circularity Schemes Not Quite Meeting the Moment