Food Waste

Send Zero Food to Landfill by 2030 Store and supply chain efficiencies Partnerships

Send Zero Food to Landfill by 2030

Food waste is an environmental, social and economic problem. An estimated 46.5% of food produced in Canada is wasted each year, with an economic impact greater than $58 billion¹, while more than 1 in 5 Canadians experience food insecurity¹. Although some degree of waste is unavoidable in food retailing, a significant part of it is unnecessary and unacceptable.

¹ Second Harvest, 2019, The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste(Open in a new tab)

Store and supply chain efficiencies

In the grocery business, customers expect products to be in stock where and when they want to shop, so ordering the right amount of food is key. Too little risks disappointing our customers, too much creates waste.

We have invested in sophisticated inventory systems to improve our procurement practices and forecast planning, we are using data tracking tools in stores to analyze product lifecycles, and we are shortening our supply chain to help keep food fresher longer.

A woman employee holds a clipboard to make notes in a food aisle of a grocery store. She is looking focused.

Partnerships

Consumer Goods Forum

In 2020, Loblaw joined the Consumer Goods Forum’s global Food Waste Coalition of Action. A key effort of the coalition is the 10x20x30 program, which encourages members to recruit their suppliers to sign on for the UN SDG Target 12.3 to halve global food waste by 2030.

A person pushes a green shopping cart in a food aisle of a grocery store.

Flashfood

Through our partnership with Flashfood we have been able to feed hundreds of thousands of families across the country more affordably while reducing our food waste. Flashfood is now live in over 900 of our stores, and in 2025, we diverted more than 21 million pounds potential food waste¹, while saving Canadians millions on their grocery bills.

A man is smiling at his phone while holding a basket of groceries. He is standing in a food aisle of a grocery store.

ZooShare Biogas LP.

From waste to renewable energy! We are partnered with ZooShare Biogas LP., who combines used cooking oil and food no longer fit for human consumption with animal manure from the Toronto Zoo to produce biogas that generates renewable electricity fed directly into the provincial power grid.

Through our partnership with ZooShare, our stores have diverted 600 metric tonnes of residual material from disposal in 2025.

A few factory buildings are surrounded by paved roads, green grass, green trees, and blue sky.

Loop Resource Ltd.

From food to farm! We have partnered with Loop Resource Ltd. to send food that is not fit for human consumption to farms where it is fed to animals.

In 2025, more than 20,000 metric tonnes of food was provided to feed animals from our corporate grocery retail stores.

An assortment of peppers at a grocery store including green, yellow, orange, and red peppers.

Food banks

We match 100% of our eligible stores with local food banks and food recovery agencies across Canada. Our food recovery program reduces food going to landfill and provides people facing food insecurity with healthy meals.

In 2025, we donated more than 20,000 metric tonnes of food to Food Banks and Food Recovery Agencies, with over 5,800 metric tonnes coming from our distribution centres.²

A female food bank employee is grabbing pasta from a shelf. There is a male employee grabbing food behind her, too.

¹Pounds diverted is calculated using the average retail price per pound of food based on data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Statistics Canada, updated annually based on prices the previous year. Using the total dollars sold on the app, the average price of food per pound at retail, and assuming an average Flashfood discount of 50% across all products, we calculate an approximation for the pounds of food diverted from landfill. ²This metric includes amounts that were provided by Loblaw to Food Banks and Food Recovery agencies through corporate donations and in-store fundraising facilitated by Loblaw during the reporting period. It also includes amounts raised during the year that were provided to Food Banks and Food Recovery Agencies subsequent to year end

Got questions? Want to learn more?

responsibility@Loblaw.ca

As a part of our culture of integrity, it is important that non-compliant and unethical matters are reported.

Call the Integrity Action Line: 1-800-525-7868 (available in English, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Korean languages); or visit www.integrityactionline.com (available in English, French and Spanish languages).