Andreea VASILE Fruit and Vegetables Buyer Control of fruits and vegetables Fruits and vegetables form the basis of a healthy and balanced diet and are the most important source of vitamins and minerals required by the body. At any time of the year, we offer seasonal produce in our stores to ensure a varied and quality diet for the whole family. To ensure the freshness and quality of vegetables and fruit, they are checked on delivery to our warehouses, before they arrive at the store, through visual inspections by regularly trained specialists. Once in PENNY stores, vegetables and fruit are inspected during the day every 2 hours to ensure that we only have fresh and healthy produce on the shelf. Compliance with pesticide residue and contaminant content requirements is our focus through regular analysis at independent, specialized, and accredited institutes. We are in constant communication with our suppliers and work with them to offer as much produce as possible from crops certified to specific quality management standards for fruit and vegetables. We want to ensure that the requirements for product traceability, hygiene and food safety standards, and reduced use of plant protection products are met. In 2022, we implemented a new project: Early quality checks at suppliers. For high quality traceability, we standardized both local and imported production with Global Gap certificates. We work with seasonal producers in Romania on a seasonal plan basis and try to have local producers near our logistic centers. The program to reduce the risk of pesticide identification for marketed fruits and vegetables started in September 2022. We do ongoing checks through analysis by an external laboratory. Eight pesticide exceedances between January and May 2022 resulted in nationwide recalls, a situation reduced to zero after implementation of the program. We have developed programs with producers in which we are familiar with the seed hybrids used as well as the harvest periods We standardize the use of IFCO boxes to reduce the amount of waste put on the market as well as to reduce the carbon footprint. More details are provided in the Energy, Climate and Resources chapter, page 157. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS SUSTAINABLE ASSORTMENT ENERGY, CLIMATE AND RESOURCES EMPLOYEES AND SOCIETY REPORT ASSURANCE GRI & SASB INDEX
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