Protect the environment and save money: EDEKA starts campaign month for food value assessment

Protect the environment and save money: EDEKA starts campaign month for food value assessment

According to the Federal Statistical Office, around eleven million tons of food waste are generated every year in Germany alone. 59% of this is caused by private households. That’s around 78 kilograms of food per tonne – converted to a family of four, this means avoidable costs of almost 350 euros a year. In times of inflation, this is particularly painful for many consumers. Under the motto “Good for the environment and the wallet”, EDEKA is organizing the month of action for food value assessment from September 15th to October 15th for the first time. Consumers receive useful information and tips on how to handle food more consciously and thus produce less food waste – with a positive effect on the wallet. More information at:

Despite rising food prices, a lot of food is still thrown away in German private households. In order to draw more attention to this, EDEKA has launched the “Food Value Assessment” campaign month. The aim of the initiative is to raise customer awareness of issues such as waste generation and the associated protection of climate and resources. “We love food – that is the guiding principle for our daily actions. Every food is a valuable commodity that was produced with a lot of effort in the interaction of nature and agriculture. We are constantly developing innovative and consumer-oriented solutions to further reduce food waste along the entire value chain,” says Markus Mosa, CEO of EDEKA ZENTRALE Stiftung & Co. KG.

Part of the initiative is a “10-day challenge” with many motivating tasks on topics such as shopping planning, food storage and leftovers, which can contribute to rethinking and changing one’s own habits. Consumers can also find information on the EDEKA social media channels and on various social channels of influencers with a wide reach. This creates added value for customers when shopping and at the same time shows savings potential. Especially in times of rising prices and inflation, it is all the more worthwhile to be more aware of food. In all participating EDEKA stores there is a large number of products with the best price-performance ratio. Buying consciously and throwing away as little as possible also saves money. Under the motto “completely happy”, customers can:www.edeka.de/gewinnspiel win valuable prizes. The task: creatively create delicious dishes with surplus food and leftovers. The EDEKA magazines WITH LOVE, that tastes good, YUMMI and GOLD accompany the campaign month – as does the EDEKA podcast “ISS SO” with a special episode on the subject of food appreciation.

Committed to more food appreciation

The EDEKA group is aware of its responsibility as a leading food retailer and, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – in particular SDG 12.3 and the Federal Government’s Agenda 2030 – is committed to actively helping to reduce food waste at consumer and retail level to be halved by 2030. The EDEKA association actively helps to implement the goal and also embeds it in the existing action for more sustainability. The EDEKA association is accompanied by sustainability expert Dirk Steffens, who supports in an advisory capacity.

The approximately 3,500 self-employed retailers, the seven EDEKA wholesalers and the EDEKA headquarters are involved in a variety of ways to reduce excess food in retail to a minimum and to sensitize consumers to the responsible use of food. Throwing away excess food is not only critical from an ecological point of view, but also represents an economic loss. The EDEKA group is therefore investing in modern merchandise management systems that optimize the flow of goods and avoid oversupply from the outset. Thanks to efficient storage locations and logistics processes, as little food as possible is lost through transport and storage. visually less attractive, but goods of impeccable quality are processed into freshly prepared convenience products in many markets. The EDEKA retailers and wholesalers are also among the most important sponsors of around 900 local food bank initiatives nationwide and other social institutions, to which they regularly donate food. The Federal Association of Food Banks e. V. has been awarding EDEKA with the “Tafel-Teller” every year since 2014. The EDEKA association is also leading the way with innovative retail solutions at the regional level. Two examples: EDEKA Südwest offers perishable food in its stores via an internal goods exchange at significantly reduced purchase prices. Fruit and vegetables that are no longer salable receive a ”

GSN