Courtauld needs more ambitious targets

I very much welcome Courtauld 2025, which marks a serious departure from previous phases of this voluntary agreement. In particular, it acknowledges the responsibilities of supermarkets for food wasted upstream and it includes, for the first time, food wasted on farms in reduction efforts. This is testimony to the huge public outcry against the scandal of industry food waste – driven by food waste campaigners and public awareness raised by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s War on Waste.

Targets

However, I would have liked to see more ambitious targets – to deliver a 30% reduction by 2025, against 2016 baselines – and a regulatory back-up plan for enforcing voluntary targets if they aren’t delivered, along the lines of my Food Waste (Reduction) Bill. The government’s public aversion to any and all regulation means that voluntary schemes often lack the teeth required to drive action at the pace we need – a problem frequently cited by people involved in voluntary agreements. As participation in the agreement is voluntary and uneven, regulation would also provide a level playing field in an industry where there are very significant commercial pressures.

It is also a missed opportunity that signatories will continue to publish a composite figure for the whole industry and won’t publish and transparently report their food waste, so we could see how well individual supermarkets and manufacturers are reducing their waste. Transparent reporting would make a huge difference to driving significant reductions in food waste, and in creating a less wasteful, more sustainable food industry.

Manufacturers

It also looks as though manufacturers are still under-represented among signatories. When around a quarter of all food wasted is within the manufacturing sector, but we still don’t know how much of it is avoidable, this part of the supply chain needs to play its part in reduction efforts. As long as it remains cheaper for food manufacturers to dispose of good food via anaerobic digestion rather than to provide it for redistribution to charities, I would also like to see the government acknowledge and review these differences in cost to ensure much more good surplus food is used to feed people and not bins.

Courtauld 2025 marks a very significant step forward, and I would urge more food industry partners to sign up to it and push for greater ambition. My Food Waste (Reduction) Bill remains on the table if the agreement is unable to deliver and would ensure a level playing field, especially for those companies that are achieving significant reductions, to ensure no one would have a competitive advantage from not taking action.