Lisbon, Portugal, 2016-Feb-12 — /EPR Retail News/ — The Jerónimo Martins Group was internationally recognised for its fight against food waste in Portugal with a “Ruban d’Honneur” in the “Award for Environmental and Corporate Sustainability” category of the 2015/16 European Business Awards.
The Group was chosen from 678 National Champions by an esteemed panel of judges made up of European business and political leaders, academics and entrepreneurs. This award considers business operations in a social, cultural, economic and environmental context.
Within the scope of the “Fighting Food Waste on All Fronts” project in Portugal, the Group integrated the use of non-standard vegetables that were previously left on the fields in its processed products. For this purpose, a process with suppliers was developed for purchasing these articles and introducing them into existing recipes in the Pingo Doce’s Meal Solutions business area, having incorporated over 3,400 tonnes of vegetables in the last two years.
Over 14,300 tonnes of these vegetables were not only sold at a lower price in our cash-and-carry Recheio stores but were also introduced into our supermarket Pingo Doce’s Private Brand 4th range category of pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables for salads and soups.
The Group has been consistently donating to charities in Portugal food that is either close to the expiration date or cannot be sold but still meets all food safety requirements. In both 2014 and 2015, this support reached over 600 institutions which help people in need and represented an estimate of more than 17,500 tonnes of food products donated which are equivalent in value to more than 29 million euros.
The European Business Awards engaged with over 32,000 companies from 33 countries this year, a 33% increase from last year, and a record-breaking number for the competition now in its ninth year.
Read more : www.businessawardseurope.com
Media Relations
Rita Fragoso
rita.fragoso@jeronimo-martins.pt
+351-21 752 61 14