WeFood or food waste control

In Europe, products that do not meet the standards - with damaged packaging, any external defects, with expiring shelf life, etc. - must immediately be sent to garbage containers, which is what causes a lot of good food to get into the garbage, which only problems of food waste.  

In recent times in France, supermarkets have been banned at the legislative level to throw out products with expiring shelf life, spoiled, etc. (the law concerns supermarkets, the area of which exceeds 400m ² ). In addition, the French authorities have forbidden deliberately to spoil the products that are sent to garbage cans near stores, since in this case, homeless people or other persons eating from garbage cans can not use such products (there were cases when products were filled with chemicals). Under the new laws, French supermarkets must conclude an agreement with charitable organizations, otherwise they face high fines.

The European consumer is accustomed to seeing on the shelves of supermarkets products with certain quality standards - fruits without visible defects on the peel, packing without dents, etc. In Denmark, more than 160,000 tons of products are thrown out each year due to a damaged box, expiring shelf life, an incorrectly labeled product (for example, basmati is written on a package with ordinary rice), and products can be disposed of as a treat for past holidays.

Considering all this, in Denmark we opened a new kind of store - WeFood, which works, unlike all others, not on a commercial basis, but employees of such shops are volunteers. WeFood income from sales donates to the development of initiatives to combat poverty and hunger all over the world.

Volunteers collect in supermarkets the remains of unfit for sale, but quite edible products and sell almost twice cheaper. It is worth noting that WeFood does not apply to social shopping, in which excess products are sold to the poor. The new line of shops is aimed at all segments of the population. The head of the charitable organization that founded the network of such stores, Per Bjer noted that social stores are unlikely to attract a large number of customers, since mainly poor and extremely needy people go there, it is unlikely that a person with an average or high income level will want to visit such a store.

WeFood was created specifically to stop the problem of senseless food waste and everyone's duty to participate in this initiative.

Affairs in WeFood are going well, the store opened only in February, but on the sidewalks a whole queue is building up that wants to buy products that they would not even look at in a normal supermarket. Organizers did not even expect such a success - the store shelves are literally emptied. Mr. Bjer noted that in stores often remain empty shelves, although now work is under way to establish uninterrupted supplies.

The reason for the empty counters, according to Bier, is not that there are no products suitable for WeFood in supermarkets. At this stage, the process of setting the movement of goods from supermarkets to the consumer is only developing and the organizers hope that the situation will change after the relations with the local retail management are resolved. After that, the chain of stores WeFood will be expanded, it is planned to open similar stores across the country.