How Charities Are Using Stock Tracking to Reduce Food Waste

Food waste in the charity sector is a painful paradox: organisations exist to feed people, yet operational limitations mean donated food sometimes expires before it can be distributed. The solution is not working harder — it is working smarter with better stock tracking. Charities that implement structured inventory management consistently report significant reductions in waste, often 20-40% in the first year. This guide explains exactly how to achieve that.

What you'll learn: The practical, step-by-step strategies charities use to reduce food waste through stock tracking, from basic FIFO rotation to AI-powered expiry management and demand forecasting.

Key insight: Food waste in charities is almost entirely preventable. It results from information gaps — not knowing what you have, when it expires, or where it is stored. Better stock tracking closes those gaps.

TL;DR

Charities reduce food waste through five key strategies: expiry date capture at intake, FIFO rotation, real-time stock visibility, demand analysis, and surplus redistribution. AI-powered tools like Plinth accelerate waste reduction by automating expiry tracking and flagging at-risk items. Charities with structured inventory systems waste 25-35% less food than those without.

Who this is for: Food bank managers, community pantry coordinators, and charity leaders tackling food waste.

The Food Waste Problem in Numbers

The scale of food waste in the UK provides essential context for understanding why stock tracking matters.

Over 10 million tonnes of food waste is generated annually in the UK (10.2 million tonnes based on WRAP's 2021/22 data). Of this, approximately 4.7 million tonnes comes from households, but significant quantities originate in the supply chain — including at the redistribution and charity stage.

2 million tonnes of food waste results from confusion between use-by and best-before dates, according to WRAP research. This confusion affects charities too: volunteers sometimes discard perfectly safe food that has passed its best-before date, or fail to prioritise items approaching their use-by date.

330,000 tonnes of surplus food was redistributed through charitable channels in 2023, according to WRAP. While this represents significant progress, it is estimated that an additional 100,000-200,000 tonnes could be redistributed with better logistics and inventory management.

10-15% of food arriving at food banks is typically wasted before distribution, based on sector estimates from FareShare and the Independent Food Aid Network. For a food bank handling 500 items per week, that is 50-75 items going to waste — items that someone donated specifically to help people in need.

Every item that is wasted in a food bank represents a failure of logistics, not of intention. Better stock tracking directly addresses this.

Strategy 1: Capture Expiry Dates at Intake

The single most impactful action a charity can take to reduce food waste is recording expiry dates when items arrive, not when someone happens to notice them later.

Why This Matters

Items that arrive without a recorded expiry date are invisible to any stock rotation system. They sit on shelves until someone physically picks them up and checks the date — by which point, many will have already expired. The Food Standards Agency reports that food businesses with systematic date-checking processes waste 40-60% less than those without.

How to Implement

Manual Approach: Train volunteers to check and record the expiry date of every food item at intake. Use a spreadsheet or paper log with columns for item name, category, expiry date, and date received. Conduct weekly reviews to identify items approaching expiry.

AI-Powered Approach: Plinth's AI stock tracking prompts users to enter the expiry date as part of the camera-first intake workflow. When you photograph an item, the AI identifies it and immediately asks for the expiry date. This makes expiry recording a seamless part of intake rather than an additional step that can be forgotten.

The Impact

Charities that consistently capture expiry dates at intake typically see a 15-25% reduction in expired-item waste within the first three months. The improvement comes from two factors: items approaching expiry are identified and prioritised for distribution, and items already past date are caught at the door rather than taking up shelf space.

Strategy 2: Enforce First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Rotation

FIFO — first in, first out — is the most fundamental stock rotation principle. Items that arrived first should be distributed first. Despite its simplicity, FIFO discipline is the most commonly neglected practice in food bank operations.

Why FIFO Fails Without Tracking

Without inventory records showing when items arrived, FIFO relies entirely on physical shelf arrangement — newer items placed behind older ones. In practice, this breaks down quickly. Volunteers in a rush place new items wherever space is available. Shelves get reorganised during cleaning. Items returned from a cancelled distribution event go back on the front of the shelf. Research from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport indicates that organisations without digital stock rotation systems have FIFO compliance rates below 60%.

How Stock Tracking Enables FIFO

When every item has a recorded arrival date and expiry date, FIFO can be enforced systematically rather than relying on physical shelf discipline alone.

Digital FIFO Alerts: Inventory systems can flag the oldest items in each category, creating a "distribute first" list for parcel assemblers. This ensures FIFO compliance even when shelves are not perfectly organised.

Date-Based Picking Lists: Instead of sending volunteers to shelves with a general category list ("two tins of soup"), generate picking lists that specify the oldest items ("Heinz Tomato Soup, arrived 15 Jan, expires 28 Mar — shelf B3").

Visual Indicators: Some organisations use coloured stickers to indicate the week an item arrived — a simple, low-tech approach that complements digital tracking. Green for this week, yellow for last week, red for items in stock for more than two weeks.

The Impact

Organisations that implement systematic FIFO — whether through digital tools or disciplined physical methods — reduce expiry-related waste by 20-40%, according to food industry benchmarks published by the Institute of Grocery Distribution.

Strategy 3: Maintain Real-Time Stock Visibility

You cannot manage what you cannot see. Real-time stock visibility means knowing what you have, where it is, and when it expires — at any given moment, not just when the last stocktake was done.

The Visibility Gap

Most food banks using manual methods only have accurate stock information immediately after a stocktake. Within hours of donations arriving and parcels going out, the information is already outdated. This creates problems at every stage: intake staff do not know whether to accept a large donation of a particular item (is there already plenty on the shelf?), parcel assemblers do not know if a category is about to run out, and managers cannot assess whether they need to request specific items from donors.

Industry research suggests that organisations with real-time inventory visibility can reduce stockouts by up to 50% and overstock situations by up to 30% compared to those relying on periodic counts.

How to Achieve Real-Time Visibility

Digital-First Recording: Every item movement — intake, shelving, selection for a parcel, distribution — should be recorded digitally as it happens, not batched for later entry.

Mobile Access: Staff and volunteers need to be able to check and update stock from anywhere in the building using their smartphones, not just from a single computer in the office.

Dashboard Views: Plinth provides dashboard views showing current stock levels by category, items approaching expiry, and recent activity. Managers can check the situation remotely without needing to be on-site.

The Impact

Real-time visibility reduces waste through better decision-making at every level. Intake staff can decline surplus donations of items already overstocked. Parcel assemblers can adapt compositions based on actual availability. Managers can proactively request donations of items in short supply. The cumulative effect is a more balanced, responsive operation that wastes less.

Strategy 4: Analyse Demand Patterns

Stock tracking data, accumulated over weeks and months, reveals demand patterns that support proactive rather than reactive inventory management.

What the Data Reveals

Seasonal Fluctuations: Demand for certain items varies by season. Soups and hot drinks increase in winter. Fruit juices and lighter goods peak in summer. Understanding these patterns allows food banks to communicate specific needs to donors in advance. The Trussell Trust reports that demand peaks significantly in December and January, with parcels distributed in these months often 20-30% higher than the annual average.

Category Imbalances: Data consistently shows that certain categories are chronically oversupplied (tinned beans and pasta are common examples) while others are chronically undersupplied (toiletries, baby food, and fresh items). Knowing this enables targeted donation requests.

Turnover Rates: Some items move through the food bank in days; others sit for weeks. Items with low turnover rates are candidates for reduced acceptance thresholds or redistribution to other organisations.

Day-of-Week Patterns: Distribution often varies by day — some food banks are busier on certain days due to benefit payment schedules, local employment patterns, or school term dates. Stock tracking data reveals these patterns, supporting better staffing and stock preparation.

How to Use This Data

Donor Communication: Share specific shortage data with corporate donors and collection organisers. Instead of asking for "food donations," ask for "tinned fish, long-life milk, and toiletries — our three most-needed categories this month." FareShare reports that targeted donation requests improve the relevance of donations by 30-50%.

Stock Level Targets: Set minimum and maximum stock levels for each category based on historical demand. Alert donors when stocks of key items drop below the minimum and pause acceptance when they exceed the maximum.

Parcel Composition Adjustments: Adjust standard parcel compositions based on what is actually available, ensuring balanced nutrition while minimising the risk of items going to waste because they are not included in parcels.

Strategy 5: Coordinate Surplus Redistribution

When a food bank has more of a particular item than it can distribute before expiry, the solution is redistribution to another organisation — not letting it expire on the shelf.

Building a Redistribution Network

Identify Partners: Build relationships with neighbouring food banks, community fridges, school breakfast clubs, homeless shelters, and other organisations that can absorb surplus stock.

Share Data: When your stock tracking shows an oversupply of a particular item, notify your network immediately. The earlier the notification, the more time partners have to arrange collection.

Two-Way Flow: Redistribution should be reciprocal. When your partners have surplus stock that matches your shortages, the flow should reverse. This requires all parties to maintain accurate stock data.

Technology for Redistribution

Platforms like FoodCloud and Olio facilitate surplus food redistribution by connecting donors with recipients. Plinth's real-time stock visibility complements these platforms by providing the accurate stock data needed to identify surplus before it becomes waste.

WRAP estimates that improving redistribution coordination could divert an additional 100,000 tonnes of edible food from waste annually in the UK. Stock tracking data is the foundation that makes this coordination possible.

Strategy 6: Track and Analyse Waste

Paradoxically, one of the best ways to reduce waste is to carefully track the waste that does occur. Understanding why items are wasted reveals systemic issues that can be addressed.

Categorising Waste

When items are written off, record the reason:

• Expired (use-by): Item passed its use-by date while in stock
• Expired (best-before): Item passed its best-before date and was deemed unsuitable
• Damaged: Item was damaged in storage or handling
• Contaminated: Item was contaminated by another product or pest
• Unsuitable: Item was not appropriate for distribution (e.g., alcoholic beverages, unsuitable dietary items)
• Recalled: Item was subject to a product recall

What Waste Data Reveals

High-Expiry Categories: If tinned goods rarely expire but fresh produce frequently does, you may need to adjust your acceptance criteria for fresh items or improve refrigeration.

Storage Issues: A spike in damaged items may indicate a shelving problem, a pest issue, or poor handling during intake.

Acceptance Problems: If a high proportion of waste comes from items that were unsuitable for distribution, your acceptance criteria need tightening.

Seasonal Waste: Waste rates that correlate with seasons may indicate that certain items should only be accepted during periods of higher demand.

According to the Courtauld Commitment 2030 — a voluntary agreement between WRAP and food businesses — organisations that implement waste tracking and reporting reduce total food waste by 15-20% within two years, simply through the awareness and accountability that measurement provides.

How Plinth Supports Waste Reduction

Plinth's AI stock tracking supports each of the six strategies described in this guide through specific features.

Expiry Capture at Intake: The camera-first workflow includes an expiry date prompt, making date recording a seamless part of item intake rather than an additional task.

Expiry Alerts: Items approaching their use-by date are automatically flagged, enabling proactive distribution before they expire.

Real-Time Dashboard: Current stock levels by category are always available, supporting informed decision-making about intake, distribution, and redistribution.

Consistent Data: AI-powered categorisation ensures that stock data is consistently structured, enabling meaningful analysis of demand patterns and waste trends.

Reporting: Built-in reporting generates the analytics needed to identify waste patterns, communicate needs to donors, and demonstrate impact to funders.

No Barrier to Adoption: The camera-first approach requires no specialist hardware and minimal training, meaning food banks can start capturing better data immediately without a lengthy implementation process.

Better stock tracking is not about adding administrative burden — it is about automating the data capture that makes waste reduction possible.

Measuring Your Progress

To assess whether your waste reduction efforts are working, track these key metrics monthly.

Waste Rate: The percentage of items received that are written off rather than distributed. A well-managed food bank should aim for a waste rate below 5%.

Expiry Waste: The number and value of items written off specifically because they passed their use-by date. This should decrease steadily as FIFO and expiry management practices improve.

Turnover Rate: The average number of days an item remains in stock before being distributed. Faster turnover reduces the risk of expiry.

Category-Specific Waste: Waste rates broken down by category, identifying the specific areas where improvement is most needed.

Redistribution Volume: The quantity of surplus items successfully redistributed to partner organisations rather than wasted.

These metrics, tracked consistently over time, provide the evidence base for continuous improvement and the data that funders increasingly expect to see.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much food waste can a food bank realistically eliminate?

Zero waste is extremely difficult to achieve because some items arrive already expired or damaged, and demand is unpredictable. However, food banks with structured stock tracking consistently achieve waste rates below 5%, compared to the 10-15% typical of organisations without tracking. A reduction from 15% to 5% — entirely achievable with the strategies in this guide — prevents approximately 50 items per week from being wasted in a food bank handling 500 items weekly. That is 2,600 items per year — enough to feed dozens of families.

Is it worth tracking best-before dates as well as use-by dates?

Yes. While items past their best-before date are legally safe to distribute, many food banks choose not to distribute items significantly past this date due to quality concerns. Tracking best-before dates separately from use-by dates gives you the information to make nuanced decisions rather than blanket policies.

How quickly do waste reduction benefits appear after implementing stock tracking?

Most food banks see measurable improvements within the first month of implementing expiry tracking and FIFO practices. The full benefit — including demand pattern analysis and optimised redistribution — typically takes 3-6 months to materialise as sufficient data accumulates.

Can stock tracking help during donation surges?

Absolutely. During harvest festival, Christmas, and other peak donation periods, food banks often receive far more than they can distribute before expiry. Real-time stock visibility helps identify surplus categories early, enabling proactive redistribution to partners before items expire. Without tracking, surplus often is not identified until it is too late.

What should we do with food that has expired?

Items past their use-by date must not be distributed for human consumption. Options include animal feed donation (many items are suitable), composting, and anaerobic digestion. Some waste management companies offer free collection for food banks. Track these disposals to understand the scale of the issue and identify prevention opportunities.

How does stock tracking support our food hygiene obligations?

The Food Standards Agency requires food redistribution organisations to maintain traceability records. Stock tracking systems provide this by recording what was received, when, from where, and to whom it was distributed. This supports compliance with the Food Safety Act 1990 and demonstrates due diligence in the event of a food safety incident.

Conclusion

Food waste in charities is not inevitable — it is a symptom of information gaps that better stock tracking can close. Every strategy in this guide — from expiry capture at intake to surplus redistribution coordination — depends on having accurate, timely inventory data.

Start with Expiry Dates: The single highest-impact action is recording expiry dates at intake. This alone can reduce waste by 15-25%.

Build Systematically: Layer FIFO rotation, real-time visibility, demand analysis, redistribution coordination, and waste tracking on top of that foundation.

Use the Right Tools: Plinth's camera-first AI stock tracking automates the data capture that makes all of these strategies possible, without adding administrative burden to already-stretched volunteer teams.

Every item saved from waste is an item that reaches someone who needs it. That is the purpose of stock tracking in the charity sector.

Ready to reduce waste in your food bank? Book a demo of Plinth to see how AI-powered stock tracking makes waste reduction practical and measurable.

Recommended Next Pages

• The Complete Guide to Food Bank Inventory Management – The comprehensive guide to managing all aspects of food bank stock.

• What Is AI Stock Tracking? – An introduction to how AI-powered inventory management works.

• AI Stock Tracking vs Manual Stocktakes – How AI compares to traditional manual methods.

• Best Inventory Management Software for Charities – A comparison of the leading inventory tools for nonprofits in 2026.

• Camera-First Inventory Management – How AI vision technology is replacing barcode scanners.

• Case Management for Charities – How Plinth supports the broader operational needs of charities beyond inventory.

Last updated: February 2026

For more information about reducing food waste through stock tracking, contact our team or schedule a demo.