This was among the recommendations in a report on food waste in England, following an inquiry launched by the Committee last summer (see letsrecycle.com story).
WRAP, representatives from retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Waitrose, and the resources and waste minister Therese Coffey were among those to give evidence to the inquiry in hearings this year.
According to the Committee, “over £10 billion” worth of food is thrown away by households in the UK each year, which Efra chair Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton described as having ‘grotesque’ economic, social and environmental costs to the country.
Households
In the report a £13 billion figure is given equating to £470 per household per year or £9.03 per week. 60% could be avoided according to the committee.
ONS figures suggest that £56.80 is spent per household on food each week and this would mean that 15.8% of the average weekly spend on food is wasted.
In the report, the Efra Committee expressed concern at the reduction in government funding for WRAP – and called for an increase in funding to enable the organisation to tackle food waste.
WRAP was set up as a non-governmental organisation in 2000, funded by Defra as well as the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Governments.
Funding
However, the organisation became a charity in 2014 in order to attract additional sources of finance, after a reduction in funding from central government. Defra provided close to £12m in funding for WRAP in 2016/17 compared to around £56 million in 2009/10.
Projects spearheaded by WRAP to address food waste include the Love Food, Hate Waste communications initiative, as well as the voluntary Courtauld Commitment for the grocery sector, whilst the organisation also carries out projects in areas including Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), clothing waste, as well as coordinating the Recycle Now campaign.
In its report, the Efra Committee acknowledged WRAP’s work to ‘spur’ food waste reduction. But, the Committee added: “We are concerned that, despite its significant achievements, Defra’s funding for WRAP has reduced over recent years. It is essential that the Government provides WRAP with sufficient public funding so that, alongside investment from other sources such as trusts and charities, it has adequate resources to enable it to maintain its food waste reduction programmes. We urge Defra to increase the funding if evidence suggests it is necessary in the lead up to 2025.”
Target
Elsewhere, the Efra Committee called for the establishment of a national food waste target to ensure a ‘continuous focus’ on reducing food waste, as well as support for the redistribution of edible food, and relaxation of retailers’ quality standards to see more ‘wonky veg’ sold by supermarkets.
MPs also commended Tesco for publishing its data on food waste from the supply chain (see letsrecycle.com story) but criticised other retailers for failing to follow suit.
The Committee’s report, noted: “The fact that no other retailers have followed their lead shows that a voluntary approach is inadequate. We recommend that the incoming Government requires food businesses over a particular size to publicly report data on food waste. This would create much more transparency.”
‘Scandal’
Commenting on the recommendations set out in the report, Mr Parish said: “Socially it is a scandal that people are going hungry and using food banks when so much produce is being wasted. And environmentally it is a disaster, because energy and resources are wasted in production only for the food to end up rotting in landfills where it produces methane – a potent climate-changing gas.
He added: “The Government needs to step in and force other major supermarkets to be transparent about food waste. We welcome the will shown by retailers to redistribute surplus food. However, we believe that more must be done. There is a huge amount of surplus food that is currently not being redistributed.”
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