That produce you see at the grocery store? A lot of it never makes it to the shelves.

Four ways to reduce food loss  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

TODAY'S NEWS. TOMORROW'S INSIGHTS. A daily newsletter from McKinsey & Company   Edited by Belinda Yu   Editor, Atlanta Fighting food loss In the news • Lose the label. Dates on "best by" and "sell by" labels have long puzzled consumers. Now, some grocery stores are getting rid of them in order to reduce food waste. Several UK grocers have stripped "use by" and "best before" dates from hundreds of products, including one London-based retailer that said it would drop date labels from 300 fruit and vegetable items in June. Only two-thirds of US consumers realize that the "best by" date refers to the freshness of food, and not the last day to eat it, the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic has found. [WSJ] • Salvage store savings. Dented cans, flattened boxes, off-beat flavors: for consumers weary of rising prices, salvage food stores offer unbeatable deals. Nowadays, in addition to attracting bargain hunters, they're also enticing consumers who care about the environment and want to lower food waste. A few companies have launched digital versions of salvage stores. One online grocer, founded in 2018, has sent out more than 14 million boxes of produce that might have otherwise gone to the trash heap. [NYT] Three food categories—fruits and vegetables, cereals, and roots and tubers—account for much of the food loss and the associated carbon dioxide emissions and water use. On McKinsey.com • Barley by-products. Each year, more than two billion tons of food are lost or wasted. Half of the uneaten food, worth about $600 billion, is lost during or just after harvest. The hidden costs of food loss often equal or exceed retailers' net profit, reveal McKinsey senior partners Clarisse Magnin-Mallez, Björn Timelin, and colleagues. But companies that cut down on food loss could capture $80 billion in new market potential. For example, one beverage company turned its barley by-products into a protein and fiber ingredient, launching two new businesses. • Missing tomatoes. To understand where food gets lost in the supply chain, McKinsey teamed up with the Consumer Goods Forum to trace the journey of tomatoes from the farm to the retailer. In the developed world, out of 100 tomatoes, only 72, at most, make it to a store shelf. In developing countries, only 35 to 58 ever reach the store. Two-thirds of the loss is edible—for instance, food that's rejected because it doesn't meet customer standards, McKinsey analysis shows. See four ways that grocers and manufacturers can tackle food loss. Understand food loss Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here. Or send us feedback— we'd love to hear from you. Follow our thinking This email contains information about McKinsey's research, insights, services, or events. By opening our emails or clicking on links, you agree to our use of cookies and web tracking technology. For more information on how we use and protect your information, please review our privacy policy. You received this email because you subscribed to the On Point newsletter. Manage subscriptions | Unsubscribe Copyright © 2022 | McKinsey & Company, 3 World Trade Center, 175 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10007