Our care for sustainable nutrition
Every day, approximately 4 million customers visit Żabka stores, and we feel responsible for supporting them in building good and sustainable eating habits. We ensure that the ingredients of the meals available in our stores are sourced responsibly, implement raw material policies, and set goals for ourselves and our suppliers to minimize the negative impact on the environment. Our priority is to ensure that our customers have access to balanced meals suited to any time of the day. As part of the 'Porcja DobreGO' (portion of good food) program, we collaborate with suppliers, reformulate ready-made meals, and jointly develop them to be tasty and healthy. To minimize food waste, we use artificial intelligence and adjust the assortment in stores to the actual needs of local communities. Through good cooperation, we facilitate a sustainable lifestyle for everyone, every day.
Our goals and ambitions
Multiply the sales value of own brand products promoting a sustainable lifestyle (in PLN)
Our ambition is to promote sustainable choices to our customers and encourage as many people as possible to have a balanced diet.
Increase the share of own brand products promoting a sustainable lifestyle
We want to encourage consumers to make sustainable food choices and make it as easy as possible for them to make the right decisions on sustainable nutrition.
Reduce food waste intensity in own operations by 25%
We want to further develop our tools to support us in optimising order volumes.
50% of unsold food in internal operations redistributed
In addition to the measures we are taking to reduce the intensity of food waste, we also want to ensure that as much unsold food as possible goes to those in need or is managed in other useful ways.
Our activities
Reformulation is a process that requires time and the commitment of both our internal teams and our suppliers. Recently, we applied it to well-known sauces from our foodservice offer. The main objective was to improve product compositions without affecting their quality or sensory attributes, so that customers can continue to enjoy the same taste. In cooperation with our suppliers, we introduced specific recipe changes, including the removal of acidity regulators and the replacement of modified starch with so-called native starch.
In parallel, we carried out a second process of composition changes across our own brand assortment, covering adjustments related to the use of annatto colouring and the emulsifier –
soy lecithin. In this case, we decided to discontinue these additives and remove them from existing products, while soy lecithin was replaced with sunflower lecithin.
Annatto colouring is a widely used additive in the food industry, mainly found in cheeses where it provides a yellow-orange colour. In turn, replacing soy lecithin with sunflower lecithin enables the elimination of soy as an allergen, increasing product accessibility for a broader group of consumers.
As Maria Palacz, Senior Quality A&D Specialist at Żabka, emphasises: “These actions represent another step towards simplifying the compositions of our own brand products. We consistently raise quality standards while ensuring that the flavour profile our customers know and appreciate remains unchanged.”
GS1 DataMatrix – The next generation barcode driving Żabka’s retail innovation
Żabka has long been a pioneer of new barcode technologies, delivering benefits that include ensuring product freshness at all times, supporting consumer safety, improving inventory management and delivering the product information customers look for.
In 2024 we took a significant step forward when we became the first Polish retailer to roll out the highly advanced GS1 DataMatrix, a cutting-edge two-dimensional barcode that resembles a QR code. Importantly, it achieves exceptional data capacity in a very small format to deliver significant advantages over its one-dimensional predecessors.
According to Marta Urbaniak, Żabka’s Director of Quality and Environmental Management, ‘This built on work we started as long ago as 2018, when we first worked with leading Slovak sandwich producer Pierre Baguette to introduce one-dimensional GS1 barcode technology.’
'That initial work led to immediate advances in terms of efficiency and inventory management, while bringing us an important source of continuous improvement that we’ve been focused on ever since. But it wasn’t perfect – for example, some of our shops and warehouses had problems scanning the barcodes, especially when package surfaces were curved.’
This highlighted the need for an even more advanced, more versatile barcode option that could hold more data. GS1 DataMatrix soon emerged as the ideal choice to investigate further.
The company has therefore been working particularly closely over the last two years on implementation, collaborating with Nowalijka – a leading Polish fruit, vegetable and ready meals company that provides Żabka with a range of fresh-food products. As a result, the two companies have successfully optimised the size of the barcode, making it compact enough to be used on small and curved fresh-food products.
‘We are naturally delighted to have created a more compact barcode option that meets global retail standards,’ Marta Urbaniak continues. ‘But it’s not all about compactness. Other benefits include improved restocking, reduced product unavailability, enhanced data synchronisation, better scanning accuracy and shelf-life management, and streamlined deliveries. It also means we know when to discount products and ensures nothing is sold after expiration – a key aspect of customer safety that also helps reduce food waste.’
Today, more than 12,000 Żabka stores have implemented GS1 DataMatrix, placing the company at the forefront of change. This is well ahead of the goals set for the global retail sector stipulating that all point-of-sale systems must be able to read and process 2D barcodes by the end of 2027.
Żabka’s work with Nowalijka has also been marked by an award at the KOD Innovation Conference, and the company continues to work closely with the GS1 Institute, meeting every quarter as part of the GS1 Working Group.
According to Marta Urbaniak ‘I am particularly pleased that we have now implemented GS1 with some 80% of our refrigerated private label suppliers, covering more than 120 own-brand products. Our focus is now on the next stage in developing this technology – in particular, testing GS1 DigitalLink codes, which will further improve customer communication by redirecting them to a website.’
Reimagining ready meals together with Hilton Foods
Every day, more than 4.1 million transactions take place in Żabka stores, and we feel a strong responsibility to support our customers in building healthy and sustainable eating habits. That’s why, as part of the “Porcja DobreGO!” initiative, we collaborate with trusted suppliers such as Hilton Foods to create tasty, nutritious, and high-quality ready meals.
As Jakub Malec, Sustainable Food Manager at Żabka, highlights:
‘Our work with the Hilton Foods team is truly unique. Our shared priority is to ensure customers have easy access to balanced meals for any time of day. Thanks to our close cooperation, we can do this even more effectively. Together, we focus on developing new recipes and improving existing ones to better meet the needs of today’s consumers.’
Regularly held workshops involving Żabka’s nutrition experts, the NPD team responsible for new product development, and Hilton Foods representatives allow us to create innovative ready meals based on expert knowledge and the highest quality standards. This process includes ingredient selection, production planning, kitchen and production testing, sensory panels, and nutritional value calculations.
Alongside new product development, we are also engaged in intensive reformulation efforts with Hilton Foods to improve the recipes of existing products. Our goal is for our meals to achieve the highest possible Nutri-Score ratings and meet clean label criteria. Hilton Foods also supports us in ensuring that the ingredients used in our meals are certified in line with our quality and sustainability policies.
An important aspect of our collaboration is inventory management and food waste prevention. Through close coordination with Hilton Foods, we can better plan orders and adjust production to actual demand, minimising waste.
It is through partnerships like this that we can fulfil our mission: promoting a sustainable lifestyle for everyone, every day.
How do we make sustainable lifestyle easier?
How do we prevent food waste?
We limit food waste at Maczfit by supporting the Food Bank SOS in Warsaw
Every year, Poles throw away approximately 4.8 million tons of food products. At Żabka Group, we are aware of this challenge and place great importance on reducing food waste. Thanks to the good cooperation between Maczfit and Food Bank SOS in Warsaw, over 90 tons of products have already reached those in need.
During the daily preparation of meals for thousands of Poles, production surpluses are inevitable. At Maczfit, we decided to address this problem with a solution that combines a pro-ecological approach and support for those in need. Through cooperation with the Food Bank SOS in Warsaw, semi-finished products that are no longer used but are still good for consumption are delivered to five large aid centres.
At Maczfit, we established a permanent collaboration with the Food Bank SOS in Warsawin in August 2023. Over the course of a year, the company has donated over 90 tons of food worth approximately 889,000 PLN to the foundation. This initiative is significant considering that, according to the latest calculations by the Federation of Polish Food Banks, the products wasted by Poles could translate into about 12 billion meals.
Our policies
This Policy sets out uniform norms and procedure in respect of Own Brand Products offered by Żabka Polska to the extent concerning coffee, tea, coco, soy, fish and seafood.
The new iteration of the Product Charter has an expanded scope of required information that will enable us to effectively fulfill our commitments to building a sustainable supply chain.
The Company’s ambition is to create conditions that would allow everyone to lead a sustainable life in harmony with the planet every day. We emphasize our environmental and social responsibility. One of our responsibilities is to shape the range of products offered to our customers.
Our progress
What else can we improve together
