Retail trade association the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has led an open letter in collaboration with food waste company Too Good To Go, calling for the introduction of mandatory public food waste reporting.
The letter, addressed to Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, now has over 30 signatories from the UK’s food, retail and manufacturing sectors, including Bidfood, Compass Group UK&I, Danone, Nestle, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Marks and Spencer and numerous others.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said: “Mandatory Food Waste reporting is a key step in reducing food waste, helping retailers to understand their waste hotspots and where surplus food can be redistributed.
“While most retailers already report voluntarily through WRAP’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, mandatory reporting will enable greater transparency across the supply chain.
“Retailers will continue to engage with the Government to ensure that the system works for all stakeholders, and that it aligns across the four UK nations.”
Increasing the visibility of food waste
The letter said that a third of all food produced was currently going to waste, contributing 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with pre and post farm gate food waste costing £21.8 billion annually to the UK economy.
Hannah Cornick, head of sustainability and social innovation at Danone UK & Ireland commented: “At Danone, we think reporting on food waste is extremely valuable – because what gets measured, gets managed. In the UK we already report our figures to WRAP on an annual basis, tracking our progress towards 50% reduction in food waste by 2030.
“Mandatory reporting would help improve visibility of food waste right across the industry, highlighting it as both a business and wider sustainability issue that we should all be focused on managing.”
Julie Owst, head of sustainability at Bidfood, said: “Food waste has for too long been a hidden problem at all stages of food supply chains, right from farm to plate, so we wholeheartedly endorse the call for mandatory reporting, as awareness and visibility of a problem is often the first real step in tackling it at scale.”
