SINGAPORE - Supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice generated a total of 1,300 tonnes of food waste last year, a 41 per cent drop from 2,200 tonnes in 2014.
In a press release on Thursday (April 21), it said the amount made up 0.2 per cent of total food waste in Singapore, down from the previous year's 0.3 per cent.
To quantify and track its waste reduction efforts, FairPrice last year developed a Food Waste Index which is derived from total food waste over total retail space. This measure is not affected by opening of stores, for instance.
The index dropped 39 per cent from 11.9 kg per sq m in 2014 to 7.2 kg per sq m in 2015.
Food categories such as tropical fruits, exotic fruits, vegetables and fresh fish or seafood registered the highest wastage.
A total of 210,000 kilogrammes of fruits and vegetables were saved through the "Great Taste Less Waste" selection, where fruits with slight blemishes and cut vegetables were repackaged and sold at a marked down prices to reduce food waste.
The initiative was piloted at all seven FairPrice Xtra stores in May 2015, but an additional 64 FairPrice stores have taken up the initiative since end 2015.
In a partnership with Food from the Heart charity, FairPrice now donates a total of $20,000 worth of unsold but still wholesome groceries each month from all its 131 stores islandwide to 41 charities.
