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Further information:

Origin of our food:

www.waitrose.com/food/originofourfood/index.aspx

Waitrose health and nutrition:

www.waitrose.com/food/healthandnutrition/index.aspx


Responsible fishing

Since launching its responsible fishing policy 12 years ago, Waitrose has worked continually to ensure all its fi sh comes from sustainable sources or is farmed from responsible farming systems. We also work alongside organisations such as the Marine Stewardship Council and the Marine Conservation Society to introduce alternative species such as pollock, tilapia and coley that are not endangered or over-fished, and ensure all the fish we sell is fully traceable and caught using responsible methods that minimise environmental damage.

Waitrose, with 10% of UK supermarket fish sales (compared to an overall 4% market share), was named Seafood Multiple Retailer of the Year at the Seafood Awards 2009, organised by industry body Seafi sh, for its commitment to sustainable fishing, with the judges highlighting staff training and customer education in particular. To investigate the level of awareness of the issues facing the industry, Waitrose commissioned a YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults in May 2009. The results showed that 78% of those polled don’t try to buy sustainable seafood and 72% were unaware that species such as blue fin tuna are close to extinction.

In the wake of these findings, Waitrose sponsored the nationwide premiere of The End of the Line, on World Oceans Day in June 2009. The world’s fi rst major documentary fi lm to expose the impact of overfi shing, described by producer George Duffi eld as “the greatest environmental disaster that people haven’t heard about”, enabled us to engage with a wider audience about our commitment in this area. Watch a short clip of the fi lm here.

Health, nutrition and responsible drinking

According to British retailing: A commitment to health, a report by the British Retail Consortium, the UK retail sector is responding to the obesity crisis by giving the public healthier choices and more information about the food they buy. Waitrose has already met many of the targets for the reduction of sugar, salt and saturated fats proposed by the food Standards agency (fSa), and the use of healthier unsaturated fats, along with guidance on portion size, are both part of our ongoing work with suppliers to improve everyday products.

We also introduced calorie and allergen labelling on our own-brand alcoholic drinks in December 2008, launched a gluten-free range in March 2009, no longer manufacture own-brand products with artificial colours, and continue to provide nutrition and health information through our nutrition advice Service, recipe cards and on-pack ‘traffic-light’ labelling on over 1,000 products.

We remain committed to highlighting the sensible drinking message to both customers and Partners. In practice, this means that our shelf-edge ticketing carries alcohol unit information, we adopt a ‘think 21’ approach to asking for proof of age, using a third party to conduct mystery shopping exercises and support a number of organisations, including the Drinkaware Trust.


“More people are asking about where our fish comes from than ever before, and want to find out more about Waitrose’s sustainable fish policies. And once people become aware, most want to buy sustainable fish – and I’m proud to help them eat fish guilt-free.”

Tim Sheehan, Fish Specialist, Waitrose West Ealing


1,000+

number of products with fSa on-pack ‘traffic-light’ labelling


12 years

length of time waitrose has had a responsible fishing policy


Key challenge:

palm oil

Waitrose is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and the Palm Oil Group within the British Retail Consortium, which is actively pursuing the development of sustainable palm oil for the UK market. We are transparent in the labelling of our products and are also reviewing our entire own-brand product range and looking at the feasibility of incorporating certified sustainable palm oil into ownbrand products. As part of this, we are currently in discussions regarding introducing ‘Green Palm’ into Waitrose own-brand products from a Waitrose supplier on a trial basis. Green Palm operates entirely separately from the physical supply chain but is designed to enable manufacturers and retailers of products containing palm oil and its derivatives to support the production of sustainable palm oil. We aspire to use 100% certified sustainable palm oil in own-brand products by 2015.