Case Study: Makro reduces food waste with VMLY&R’s Life Extending Stickers

Makro extends fruit and vegetable life by 6 days with VMLY&R

The customer, Makro, a supermarket chain in Colombia, faced a significant challenge with food waste, where 40% of fruits and vegetables were being discarded annually due to cosmetic reasons. To address this problem as part of their sustainability pillar, Makro partnered with the vendor VMLY&R to find a cheap and easy solution for their 22 stores.

VMLY&R implemented a simple solution called Life Extending Stickers. These biodegradable stickers, applied directly to the produce, used colors to suggest recipes based on ripeness and educate consumers, extending the food's life. This initiative by VMLY&R achieved a measurable impact, adding an average of +6 days to the produce's lifetime, +4 days to its exhibition time in stores, and reducing food waste by 70 tons per week across stores and homes combined.

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