‘Cookies that have expired are still easy to eat’

• Jeroen Schutijser

  reporter Economy

Biscuits that are almost expired, boxes full of unsold chocolate letters, or packs of bread mix with the wrong text on the label. These are just a few examples of leftovers that are still fine to eat, but an ‘ordinary’ supermarket no longer wants them on the shelves. Trucks with these items are sold weekly by manufacturers and retail chains to buyers at a reasonable price.

These traders sell the lots to discounters such as Big Bazar or Xenos, or to market vendors. Retail chains abroad also purchase leftovers.

Toine Timmermans of Wageningen University & Research (and a member of the foundation Together against Food Waste.nl) speaks of a positive development: “There are no figures on leftovers. Manufacturers and shops do not flaunt that. But the internet has made it all possible now. much more visible. Think of Too Good To Go and Antidur, where products from residual lots are sold at a hefty discount. There are also new suppliers.”

“We have been active in the Netherlands for almost a year now and we have already placed more than 100,000 orders,” says Bas Dekker of Foodello Netherlands. His company buys batches of brands such as Verkade, Conimex, Knorr and Dr. Oetker.

“Manufacturers are trying to work more efficiently. In the past, residual batches were often delivered to the bio-plant or processed into animal feed. Now they are more often trying to prevent food waste,” says Dekker in the NOS Radio 1 Journal. “You can easily eat cookies or chocolate, even if they are weeks past the date.”

Another buyer is Zerostock in Belfeld. That company has been in existence for four years and does business with retail chains such as Blokker, Big Bazar, Hema and Kruidvat. “Our turnover has increased by about 50 percent in one year,” says Pim Reijerink. Nevertheless, he thinks that a lot of trade is still being thrown away: “It is often much cheaper. We try to work circularly and still earn something from it.”

Reijerink gives an example: “A retail chain had made a huge error of judgment when purchasing gingerbread nuts and was left with 50,000 boxes. They wanted to throw them away, but we handed over that batch to a German discounter. They sold them at Christmas as ‘reindeer’ droppings’.”

Manufacturer Unilever says that it has not thrown away good products since 2021. “We do a lot to bring our food waste to zero.” For example, the multinational collaborates with consumer platform Too Good To Go. “So far we have offered 850,000 products through the app and more products are added every day.”

In addition, several Unilever brands, including Unox, Knorr, Conimex and Hellmann’s, have introduced a new label on their packaging. It says: ‘Look, smell, taste – before you waste’. “This label encourages consumers to rely more on their senses, rather than just relying on the best before date.“

Market leader Albert Heijn also says that it combats waste: “Since October, customers can buy products with discounts ranging from 25 to 70 percent. And with packages that are offered for an extra affordable price, we think another 4.5 million kilos of food waste per year to counteract.”

The company tries to use what remains as best as possible and donate it to the food bank. Organic waste is recycled. The supermarket chain does not want to say how many unsold products nevertheless remain.