Grocery retailers and brands are calling for the government to introduce mandatory food waste reporting to reduce how much edible food is thrown away in the UK.
More than 30 grocers and brands have signed a letter urging the government to take action, with signatories including some of the UK’s leading supermarkets, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Waitrose and M&S, as well as notable brands Innocent Drinks, Nestlé, Princes, Yoplait and Yo! Sushi.
The letter was sent to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) secretary Steve Reed, and was organised by online surplus food service Too Good to Go co-founder Jamie Crummie alongside the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The firms say that compulsory reporting will force companies to address the reality of how much food they produce and waste, and encourage them to both make the manufacturing process more efficient and reuse surplus.
The proposed new scheme will force food companies above a certain sized to report food waste, but not farmers.
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The letter follows the Labour party unveiling a target of halving food waste by 2030. New Defra secretary Reed has also spoken about his goal of the UK having a “circular economy”, with reduced waste across many categories.
Crummie told The Guardian: “We are delighted to see the environment secretary set out the creation of a zero-waste economy as a priority.
“In line with this ambition, and with the support of more than 30 businesses from across the food sector, we hope to see swift implementation of mandatory food waste reporting to ensure transparency and accountability when it comes to our food.”
The move comes as many big food businesses make major investments to cut waste. Earlier this month, Tesco opened a new facility, which turns surplus food into animal feed, while in March, Unilever-owned Hellmann’s launched an AI-enabled tool ‘Meal Reveal’ to help households use up more of the food they have in their fridge with new recipe ideas.
