Food waste is a cost businesses can’t ignore
Chelsea Kerr, managing director for the UK and Ireland, Too Good To Go.
Business leaders know what gets measured, gets managed. Yet while companies closely track margins, staff costs and stock levels, food waste is still too often treated as a secondary consideration – despite its clear connection to all three.
Recent announcements from major UK food-to-go operators, such as Greggs, point to a growing shift in how the industry is approaching this challenge, with food waste increasingly being embedded into core operational metrics. This kind of progress is encouraging and reflects a broader recognition that food waste is not just an environmental issue, but also a business one.
The scale of the issue is significant. Food waste is responsible for 10% of global emissions (WWF, 2021), and in the UK around 40% of food produced is wasted (WWF, 2021). From a business perspective, it also represents a major inefficiency, with food waste estimated to cost businesses globally $540 billion in 2026.
But beyond the numbers, this is about how businesses define performance. When food waste becomes a tracked and visible metric, it moves from the periphery into day-to-day decision-making. It allows teams to identify inefficiencies earlier, respond more effectively, and make more informed operational choices. This reflects a wider movement across the sector to integrate sustainability considerations into core business performance.
As more organisations continue to evolve how they measure success, there is an opportunity for the industry as a whole to broaden what good performance looks like – recognising that reducing food waste sits at the intersection of sustainability, efficiency, and long-term business resilience.
