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28th March 2018 – Today, Ocado launches a nationwide project with Little Inventors, with the mission of fighting household food waste by uncovering ingenious inventions from the country’s most meticulous minds and brilliant brains – our children.

The Ocado Food Waste Challenge with Little Inventors is calling on all budding Edisons and Einsteins to cook up an invention idea that could help to reduce food waste in the home. Little Inventors is founded on the belief that children’s ideas are invaluable, and their uninhibited imagination can lead to some amazing and powerful inventions. All ideas to help avoid throwing food away are welcome without limits, whether wonderfully wacky or perfectly practical.

Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Corporate Affairs at Ocado, explains: “This project is very close to our hearts. Food belongs in bellies, not bins, and tackling food waste is an important part of our goal to become the UK’s most environmentally friendly supermarket.

We take our responsibility as a retailer very seriously and, when it comes to reducing household food waste, we’ve developed initiatives such as the Product Life Guarantee to give customers more time with their food at home. Now we want to do even more to get the nation joining the fight and help households throw less food away - that’s why we’re launching our Ocado Food Waste Challenge with Little Inventors.

We’re really excited to get children and families thinking creatively about the issue. If we uncover something amazing, we’ll be looking to turn it into a fully functioning product and list it on ocado.com for our customers. Watch this space!”

The project comes after the UK’s first online-only supermarket released its near-zero food waste figures earlier this month at 0.02% - just 1 in 6,000 items - alongside its new Fight Food Waste platform. Determined to become the first supermarket with zero edible waste, Ocado already helps households throw away less food through its Product Life Guarantee, which promises to deliver products to customers with plenty of time to enjoy before expiry, and receipts that are arranged by Use By dates to help shoppers plan meals effectively.

However, with 7.3 million tonnes of food and drink being binned every year in the UK, the retailer is now hoping to uncover the next big idea to help customers to carry on the low wastage mission at home.

We can all be guilty of it, especially with everyday pressures and busy lives leading to unpredictable eating and limited time to cook. Long neglected bags of salad, gone-off milk and miscellaneous Tupperware contents are often left abandoned in our fridges until they are more dustbin than frying pan material – but an imaginative invention idea that could solve this real problem would do wonders for the environment as well as our bank balances.

According to leading waste charity WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme), some of the most common reasons for throwing food away include not storing it correctly or using it in time, preparing and cooking more than we need, and lack of planning. With the help of Little Inventors and its new Food Waste Challenge, online grocery retailer Ocado is eager to help the nation overcome these obstacles and rescue edible food from ending up in the bin.

Helen White, Special Adviser on Household Food Waste at WRAP, sheds some light on the household food waste issue: “In the UK, more than half of food waste occurs in the home, and a family of four could easily save an average of £700 every year simply by using up all the food they buy.

“It’s great to see a leading supermarket like Ocado taking the charge and reducing their food waste to almost zero. As individuals, we need to start looking after and loving our food to reduce the amount that gets wasted in the home too. It would make such a difference to the world around us – and that’s something we can all get on board with. I’m thrilled to join Ocado as a judge for the Food Waste Challenge and am very excited to see all the entries!”

To help the nation’s budding brains get inspired, Chief Inventor at Little Inventors, Dominic Wilcox, is hosting interactive workshops at selected schools across the country, where he will share some of his very own food waste inventions to get young imaginations and creativity flowing. Teachers far and wide are also being encouraged to host their own sessions with their classes using the handy Ocado Food Waste Challenge resource pack easily available to download at Ocado.LittleInventors.org.

Children sitting around the table discussing with the host

Primary schools across the country are getting involved in the Ocado Food Waste Challenge with workshops by Little Inventors

To judge the Ocado Food Waste Challenge entries, a panel made up of some of the best minds in food and technology are coming together, including Dominic Wilcox, Chief Inventor at Little Inventors; Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Ocado; Helen White, Special Adviser at WRAP.

The winner will get to see their invention drawing turned into reality by the Little Inventors ‘Magnificent Makers’ and exhibited at the Great Exhibition of the North this summer. They will also win a trip to Newcastle to see the showcase with their family, as well as £250 of Ocado vouchers.

However, this isn’t just a project to find the best invention idea – Ocado highlights it will also be a great way to educate young people on the issue of food waste and show them how they can each make a difference.

Commenting on the challenge, Dominic Wilcox, Chief Inventor at Little Inventors, adds: “Children have amazing imaginations and their ideas should be taken seriously – they’re the biggest group of naturally creative people and I know some excellent ideas will be revealed.

I often get my inspiration from the everyday stuff around us, and with the Ocado Food Waste Challenge we want to encourage kids to think differently about the everyday food they throw away and why. My workshops will not only be playful and fun, but educational too - I’m really looking forward to seeing what fantastical ideas the children come up with!”

How to get involved: To enter the Ocado Food Waste Challenge, simply visit Ocado.LittleInventors.org, download the resource pack and upload a drawing of your inventions that could help tackle food waste at home. All entries will be showcased on the online gallery for inspiration. The competition is now open and will close for entries on Monday 7 May 2018. So sharpen those pencils and get inventing!

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Ocado calls on kids to help bin the nation's food waste dilemma