Supermarkets lose R $7 bi with food thrown in the trash

A full billing of Pão de Açúcar stores. Or more than the Mc Donald's recorded in net revenues in Brazil around 2016. This is the amount-R $7.1 billion-the Brazilian supermarkets lost with food fit for consumption but were thrown out by damage, appearance or validity. Almost all went to the trash.
The "operational", retail parlance for the waste, cut, year after year, a slice of 2% of the gross revenues of the sector, that in 2016 R $338.7 billion, according to data compiled by Abras (Brazilian Association of Supermarkets). In the ranking by segment, the FLV (fruit, vegetables) leads, but the loss is high also in bakery items, fast food and meat.
The indicator gives the size of the size of the problem, but it's just a part of it. The waste lingers in all links of the productive chain and makes up 30% of what is planted never reaches the mouth of the Brazilian consumer, according to the FAO, the UN arm Brazil food and agriculture.
From a financial point of view, retailers have reason to worry: the waste represented 28.6% of total losses in 2016, overcoming the external and internal theft (18.2% and 8.3%, respectively), inventory errors (14.8%) and administrative (8.9%) and the return of vendor products (7.9%). "It's something the supermarkets look very carefully," said Tojo Mathew, Superintendent of the Open.
The industry's counterattack began about three years ago, but with results still shy on the urgency that the subject requires. In General, the actions are based on the promotion of items with expiration date next to expire. More recently, food running commercial standard-size, color, and consistency-began to be tested in some stores in major urban centres.
Released in November by Carrefour, the largest food retailer in the country, the program "Only" offers approximately 10 vegetables and fruits that do not meet the technical specifications with discounts from 30%. Implemented on a trial basis in three stores of São Paulo, the program, for now, is only feasible once a week.
According to Paul Pianez, Director of sustainability of Carrefour in Brazil, the expansion of the program is subject to the acceptance of the consumer but, mainly, to the availability of these products. That's because for years, the farmer was instructed not to deliver food without the characteristics determined by the retail. Rigid enforcement of this primer makes part of representative vegetables or get out on the field. "The producer knows of no value to the retail and food discards already, despite being perfect under the nutritional aspect. It ended up contributing to the waste. Now we have to (re) guide you, "admits.
Many times, the market itself takes care of the solution to problems that, if not directly linked to waste, serve as inspiration for actions in this direction. Milan, Open, quotes the apples of Monica's gang as a classic case of commercial consumer rearrangement dribbled, created a new habit of consumption and helped raise the income of the producer.
Unable to be served at the table (the Brazilians, it was believed, liked only red and large fruit), Apple was intended for the production of juice. The difference of price paid-three times less-mobilized producers to create an alternative: bind the fruit which grew little kiddie consumption, stamping the characters of Maurício de Sousa. The strategy worked. Today, the small apples represent 10% to 20% of the fruit consumed in the country, says Leandro Bortoluz, of Agapomi, the Association of producers of Rio Grande do Sul, the largest national producer.
"It is an exit that can be applied to other foods with low market acceptance and that, therefore, are discarded," says Milan. Retail has advanced in particular measures to prolong the shelf time perishable. Improvements in refrigeration, reorganization of the layout of stores, more resistant and the simple way to have the fruit in the gondola have significant effects.
In the produce section, network delivery of FLV, which accounts for half the business, are made daily to avoid losses and ensure fresh products (in the case of vegetables, the delivery is made twice a day). Whenever possible, the merchandise travels at night. When the day follows in refrigerated truck-rare for producers and that explains why the transport accounts for almost half of the losses in the chain. The Group also offers packages to the producer to avoid "tumbles"-transfer of a case to another, and can damage the food. With that, says he has reduced to 4% break your operational, against 6% industry average.
In the Grupo Pão de Açúcar, the actions-discounts for validity next, selling vegetables out of default-allowed 15 percent reduction in food waste in 2016 in stores Extra hyper, and 25% in the perishable, says Susy Yoshimura, Director of sustainability. She does not reveal the numbers relating to the reduction the company flags too.
Turn oranges and vegetables juice stained milkshakes in soup, selling bananas per unit, repackage cloves garlic released by handling and other stuff are also ongoing measures, but a big challenge against the waste remains to convince the consumer to delight for food "ugly".
"These products face a cultural barrier," says Dhiraj Lal, a lawyer who became an activist against the waste and in December launched an application for food donation ("Tinder" encourages food donation by small shops). "The change of culture is not as fast as the technology".
Daniela says that the Brazilian still see these foods for fear and prejudice (anyone want a carrot of "three legs"). Research carried out at the request of your NGO, the Invisible Food, shows that just over 40% of respondents associates the ugly to something bad or unsuitable for sale.
At the same time, 78% show willingness to change habits and curious to understand where the stranding of the supermarket. The disconnect with the course of food until the trash a client who ran shocked the final Christmas shopping at the Pão de Açúcar in Pacaembu, upper-class district in Sao Paulo. "Throw it all away?", amazed, to hear the testimony of an employee.
John (fictitious name to preserve your identity) says at the close of the day before, 10 packets of whole wheat bread with grains had been discarded for being the one day to win. Were in the trash also cheese breads, sandwiches and a variety of cakes made in the bakery-one of the 186 stores.
He explains that this routine is repeated every night, but that the store has tried to minimize breakage. Bake according to the demand, for example. Or grind bread, like the French, to sell as flour.
Throw out items from the bakery and fast food from the deli impacts heavily on profitability: are these shelves where are some of the largest retail gross margins and, not for nothing, that's where the big networks have expanded.
The stranding of the bakery goes in the trash due to fear in relation to responsibility for donation, says Dhiraj Lal, Invisible food. The punishment for a sandwich that hurt someone falls on who donated, not who ate. "There are in course in Congress 30 bills aimed at changing the civil responsibility in food donation, aims for subjective, what amenizaria the responsibility of the donor," he says.
Sérgio Kuczynski, Vice President of the National Association of Restaurants, admits that a lot of food is thrown away. "This needs to change. It doesn't make any sense ".