FoodCloud’s new partnership allows Food Sourcing Strategy

FoodCloud and their partners Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland have announced a three-year initiative which will see the introduction of a new Food Sourcing Strategy.

With a strong working relationship of over three years, Coca-Cola HBC has supported both FoodCloud which is based in Broomhill in Tallaght and their counterparts FareShare in Northern Ireland with financial and product donations as well as volunteer hours.

This new partnership will take a strategic approach to reducing food waste across the island of Ireland and will focus on FoodCloud’s objectives of doubling the volume of food redistributed to 5,100 tonnes per year by 2025.

This equates to approximately 12,000,000 meals redistributed in Ireland and 16,000 tonnes of CO2-eq avoided.

Tackling food loss and waste delivers a threefold purpose directly benefiting – the climate, food security, and the long-term sustainability of our food systems.

Through this initiative Coca-Cola HBC will support FoodCloud in Ireland and FareShare in Northern Ireland to analyse and review the existing approach to food sourcing and identify challenges and opportunities for growth.

The outcomes and indeed the development of the food sourcing strategy is designed to support the efforts of social enterprises to engage larger manufacturers, producers and suppliers across the food and drink supply chain in surplus redistribution.

Through the implementation of this new strategy, food industry partners will have the knowledge and processes they need to identify ways to prevent food waste and reduce carbon emissions within the sector.

Speaking at the announcement, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity, Pippa Hackett, said: “The new Food Sourcing Strategy is a very welcome initiative. Tackling food loss and food waste is a key step in combating climate change and in Ireland’s transition to a circular economy. With over 770,000 tonnes of food waste recorded in 2020, it is vital that producers, suppliers, consumers and Government work together to address this pressing challenge.”

Since 2013, FoodCloud has redistributed over 201.3 million meals in Ireland and internationally. It has also rescued more than 84,555 tonnes of food from going to waste, avoiding over 270,576 tonnes of CO2-equivalent.

Food waste also has a huge environmental impact, accounting for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To put that into perspective: Food waste generates over four times more greenhouse gas emissions than the global aviation industry.

The existing partnership between FoodCloud and Coca Cola HBC has already seen 586 tonnes of surplus food redistributed in the first quarter of 2023.

That equates to approximately 1,875 tonnes of Co2 equivalent avoided and 1.4 million meals equivalent redistributed to Food Cloud’s network of over 600 charities.

Aoibheann O’Brien, Co-Founder and Partnerships Director, FoodCloud, said: “While FoodCloud has made great progress in rescuing and redistributing surplus food, this figure represents only a very small percentage of the 770,300 tonnes of food that is wasted every year in Ireland.

“We are still only scratching the surface of surplus potential in Ireland and more needs to be done to achieve the ambitious target of halving food waste by 2023.

“The FoodCloud Food Sourcing Strategy supported by Coca-Cola HBC will be the foundation to significantly grow the volumes of food redistributed across the Irish supply chain by 2025 and support FoodCloud’s ambitious vision of a world where no good food goes to waste.

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