Food Waste Intelligence

With more than 420 stores in 52 markets worldwide IKEA is now two years into its ambitious program to reduce food waste in all the IKEA stores by 50% before end of August 2020. So far more than 1.4 million kilos of food have been saved since the program started, which is equivalent to more than 3 million meals (one meal equals 450 grams).

With one third of all food harvested and produced in the world being lost or wasted every day, IKEA wants to inspire and enable people to change their behavior when it comes to food waste, starting in the IKEA kitchens.

Through a smart scale solution provided by Leanpath and another partner, food waste is measured and registered in the IKEA restaurants and bistros. More than half of all IKEA stores have implemented the solution while others are preparing implementation.

In this first phase of the project the focus has been on actions to diminish the food waste that occurs in the daily operation in the stores. That has resulted in new ways of working in many IKEA kitchens and there are already examples of stores that have diminished their food waste by 50% or more.

“In most cases we see immediate results when the co-workers start to work with the program. We have also registered that stores that have been working with the program from the beginning maintain the low waste level which is a strong indicator that the program leads to a permanent waste reduction.” Says Michael La Cour, Managing Director at IKEA Food Services AB.

Read our IKEA case studies for a detailed look at their path to food waste prevention