Mrs McIntosh, who chairs the select committee on the environment, also identified a lack of food bank distribution and public funding for the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) as two urgent issue to tackle.
The comments came after publication today of a report on the Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Inquiry into Food Security. The study addresses the ‘other side of the equation’ – ensuring how demand for food can be met sustainably as well as how individuals can eat healthily and affordably.
Commenting on the report, Mrs McIntosh commended charities and supermarkets for their commitment to tackle food waste, but argued the amount of ‘good food’ redistributed to foodbanks is still ‘pitifully small’.
She said: “Nine million tonnes of avoidable food waste goes into bins each year, yet a considerable proportion is fit for consumption when it is discarded: this level of waste is unacceptable economically, socially and environmentally.
“The Government should set up a task force to co-ordinate national work by charities, councils, retailers, food producers and manufacturers to establish an effective redistribution network across the country.”
Inquiry
The Efra inquiry took evidence from retailers including Tesco and Morrisons which spoke of how commercial pressures meant they had developed effective distribution, storage and retail operations with ‘very little wastage’.
Other witnesses including the Sustainable Restaurant Association which revealed that an estimated 30% of the annual 600,000 tonnes of restaurant waste came ‘directly from diners’ plates’. The Efra committee also heard from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which noted how food is labelled and promoted by retailers could help influence consumer behaviour.
In its report, the Efra committee also highlights how WRAP considered the EU target of reducing food waste by 30% to be ‘challenging’ but achievable’, despite Defra cuts in WRAP funding from £48.1 million in 2010/11 to £17.6 million in 2014/15.
The committee praised WRAP’s work on reducing food waste and reiterated its recent calls for the government to increase public funding for the charity – a message that was highlighted in its recent inquiry on Defra’s performance.
The report states: “Despite reductions in recent years, the UK continues to waste significant volumes of food, and the amount of edible food being disposed of remains unacceptably high. At a time when global food systems are under pressure and the UK faces its own food security challenges, this level of waste is unacceptable economically, socially and environmentally.
‘Magic bullet’
“There is no magic bullet for tackling this; rather measures must be diligently applied across the food supply chain from producer to consumer in order to achieve steady results.”
It concludes: “It is essential that the Government provides the Waste and Resources Action Programme with sufficient public funding such that, alongside investment from other sources such as trusts and charities, it has adequate resources to enable it to maintain momentum in its food waste reduction programmes.”
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