Arla Linköping and Matmissionen join forces – reducing food waste and supporting more households, now also with private-label products.
Matmissionen, the social grocery chain run by the City Mission, is seeing rising demand for surplus food as membership grows. At the same time, large amounts of private-label products from grocery chains are being wasted, since suppliers cannot donate them without approval from the brand owner.
To address this, Matmissionen and Arla’s dairy in Linköping have launched a successful collaboration. Through dialogue between the dairy, Matmissionen, and purchasing departments at the brand owners, Arla can now donate surplus products made for private labels that would otherwise be discarded.
According to Ann-Louise Wärners, Dairy Manager at Arla Linköping, the process has been both smooth and rewarding: – food that previously went to waste now benefits people in financial hardship.
The donated products are perfectly edible but cannot be sold due to issues such as printing errors or damaged packaging. The initiative reduces food waste, cuts waste management costs, and ensures more people have access to nutritious food.
- We hope this will inspire more private-label suppliers to start donating. All it takes is a conversation between the purchasing department and the supplier,” says Simon Stegrud, Manager at Matmissionen.
Read the full press release HERE