Waste Not
CGF, Hellmann’s Keeping Food Waste Top of Mind This Holiday Season

This week, as many of us across the US prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with an abundance of food (and hopefully, also the leftovers), food waste should be top of mind for us all.

After the past three years of highlighting solutions to home food waste through its “Make Taste, Not Waste” platform, Hellmann’s is turning its attention to this week’s mother of all food-waste holidays with “Between 2 Slices” — an OOH and print ad campaign empowering people to fight food waste this Thanksgiving with sandwiches. The campaign shows people the myriad ways to turn leftovers into delicious, creative next-day meals with just two slices of bread and Hellmann's mayonnaise.

According to recent ReFED research,

• Two in three US families throw away leftovers after holiday gatherings.

• Leveraging AI in Service of Sustainability Marketing Campaigns

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  25 percent of US consumers think leftovers are boring and nearly half think that leftovers never taste as good the next time around.

• Despite not being enthused about leftovers, nearly two-thirds would like some help figuring out how to use their leftovers.

Created in collaboration with Cannes award-winning creative agency Illusion CGI Studio, “Between 2 Slices” ads will be featured across North America during key seasonal moments and feature expanded isometric style illustrations to vividly depict memorable occasions where leftovers are repurposed with Hellmann’s mayo. Each ‘occasion’ is depicted between two slices of bread, showcasing how the art of crafting tasty sandwiches creates new holiday memories.

"Our goal with Between 2 Slices is to inspire everyone to think differently about their leftovers," said Kristen Denega, Hellmann's Marketing Lead, Canada. "We want to show everyone across North America that leftovers, whether from Thanksgiving or holiday feasts, are not just about reheating the same dishes but can be easily transformed into mouthwatering sandwiches. By doing so, we can all play a part in reducing food waste and minimizing our ecological footprint, especially during the holidays."

Print and digital out-of-home ads will run through Thanksgiving and the December holiday season in key markets across the US (NYC and Orlando) and Canada (Toronto and Vancouver).

The leftover-curious can visit Between 2 Slices | Hellmann's US for leftover recipe inspiration. Hellmann’s will also have influencer partners sharing creatives ways to turn Thanksgiving leftovers into a variety of sandwich creations.

Consumer Goods Forum reports progress on food waste

And what better time for the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF)’s Food Waste Coalition of Action’s first baseline report — which presents operational food surplus and waste aggregated data from 16 of its retailer and manufacturer members. Based on 2021 data (submitted in mid-2023) compiled by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and commissioned by the Coalition, the report marks the next significant step in the industry’s journey to effective reporting and greater transparency on progress.

Marking a clear starting point for reporting progress in coming years, the baseline is part of the Coalition’s ambition to halve food waste in their business by 2030 — in alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 seeking to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns — by halving per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains. At the launch of the Coalition in 2020, members chose to focus on publicly reporting food waste and loss, aligned with guidance from Champions 12.3. Public reporting increases transparency and accountability, builds consumer trust and sets an example for the wider industry.

“We will not tackle climate change if we don’t fix our broken food system — and not least, food waste,” said WRAP CEO Harriet Lamb. “Were it a country, food waste would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the USA. So, it’s incredibly important that the Food Waste Coalition of Action has set a baseline for the businesses involved, and critical that these major food companies work collaboratively towards its goals. Together, we can halve the amount that goes to waste each year and make our food systems a more equitable model that feeds people, not bins.”

The report gathers quantitative data — including the total tonnes of food waste arising in both retailer and manufacturer cohorts, treatment and disposal routes for food waste, and the amount of food redistributed to people or animal feed. Total food waste across the cohort was 2.12 million tonnes, which was made up of nearly 929,000 tonnes of retailer food waste and 1.19 million tonnes coming from the manufacturer side. This data forms the baseline from which to track progress in future years.

Currently, around one-third of all the food produced globally isn’t eaten each year — equating to 1.3 billion tonnes. Members of the CGF’s Food Waste Coalition of Action are accelerating efforts to tackle this enormous environmental and social problem — but know that more is needed at every level.

With its explicit CEO engagement, action-oriented commitments and passion for accelerating sustainable change on a global level, the Coalition is a leader in the effort to reduce food loss in supply chains worldwide by driving action on key issues such as public reporting, full supply chain engagement, post-harvest losses and regional challenges. Together, the Coalition and its members play a powerful role in the effort to reduce waste, reducing stress on the environment, benefitting the global economy and ensuring more food makes it to stores and onto consumers’ tables in the process.

Understanding progress and being transparent is a critical way to reduce food loss and waste. The Food Waste Coalition, led by 21 of the world’s major food companies, is already working to reduce waste by focusing on three priority actions — including measurement and public reporting of food loss data, and collaboration with key stakeholders. Key projects include:

• The 10x20x30 Initiative — which targets at least 10 of the world’s largest food retailers and providers to follow the “Target-Measure-Act” approach and engage 20 of their priority suppliers to do the same, thereby halving their food loss and waste by 2030.

• Engagement on upstream losses — to address food loss at the post-harvest level, by engaging with their suppliers on collaborative, innovative and effective food loss prevention strategies.

• #TooGoodToWaste consumer engagement campaign — launched in September 2023, it supports food-industry members in raising awareness, educating and helping consumers reduce household food waste.

The report also looks at qualitative data, presenting a summary of the action that businesses are taking to set a food waste reduction target, work with their suppliers, and support their customers to reduce food waste. All data has been collected via the Global Food Loss and Waste Data Capture Sheet, built by WRAP UK and the World Resources Institute (WRI) and in support of the Food Loss and Waste Standard.

“Our Coalition is working hard to create solutions to the food waste and loss challenges in our own operations, and our supply chains both upstream and downstream,” said Ken Murphy, Group Chief Executive at Tesco. “We welcome the findings of this report, as it represents our commitment to transparency going forwards. We now want to see solid progression along our pathway towards halving food waste, and with a baseline we can now track our collective achievements. We encourage other companies to lean into the challenges and join us on our journey.”