TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Convenience stores such as 7-11 and FamilyMart have become a necessity for people living in Taiwan. Apart from selling groceries and snacks, convenience stores in Taiwan have developed a variety of cooked or fresh foods, including rice rolls, sandwiches, fruit, bento boxes, among many others, for customers to choose from. However, according to an association known as IFRA, as much as NT$7 billion’s worth of foods is left expired on shelves and thrown away due to policies of convenience store chains.

Chen Yen-chia (陳縯家), director of the IFRA, which dedicates itself to promoting the rights of franchise businesses, told United Daily News that four of the major convenience store brands in Taiwan have similar policies that demand franchises to stock up food products that are more than they can reasonably sell.

Chen said because of companies’ insistence that there must always be ample products on shelves, roughly five percent of cooked or fresh foods ordered into a franchise store are wasted on a daily basis.

The companies will say they’d rather have products left unsold than see an empty shelf, according to Chen.

The IFRA estimated that each franchise store can throw away roughly NT$2,000 worth of foods every day, which means that there is approximately NT$7 billion worth of foods discarded in over 10,000 franchise stores in Taiwan every year.

As a result, the IFRA started a campaign last month, calling for the four major convenience store brands to abandon the policies that force franchise stores to order unreasonable quantities of fresh and cooked foods. As of now, more than 300 stores have joined forces to support the campaign.

Nevertheless, some convenience store chains denied IFRA’s accusation, saying that they utilized statistics to decide and adjust the quantities of foods each franchise store should order, reported UDN.

Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), minister of the Environmental Protection Administration, said theoretically, convenience stores have mechanisms to control order quantities for their franchise stores. However, the agency is aware of the complaints made by franchise businesses and is therefore willing to offer assistance for both convenience store companies and their franchises in order to find out the best way to reduce food waste, added the minister.