Cost of Living: Food Waste

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Thursday 21st September 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Walmsley]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the abandonment of mandatory food waste reporting on the cost of living.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my farming and land management interests, as set out in the register. This Government are committed to reducing the amount of food we waste. Measuring food waste can lead to action to reduce it, and result in cost savings. However, whether such efficiencies would be passed to consumers is unclear, and within the purview of businesses themselves. It would cost an estimated £26,000 on average for a large company to start measuring food waste. These costs could be passed on to customers.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, food is wasted and yet people go hungry. The Government’s target to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 cannot be achieved without data. Despite 80% of respondents to the consultation being in favour of mandatory reporting, the Government have decided to scrap it, saying it would add cost, as the Minister has just said. But 99% of companies that invest in reducing food waste actually benefit economically. Will the Government therefore give themselves the best chance of achieving their own target, and increase redistribution of surplus food to people who need it, by implementing mandatory reporting of food waste, to include the whole supply chain and medium-sized companies, not just a few big ones?

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, nobody wants to see good food go to waste. It harms our environment and is bad for business. The UK is an international leader on tackling food waste; we are committed to meeting the target in UN sustainable development goal 12.3, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030. For unavoidable food waste, the Government’s Environment Act will introduce a requirement for all local authorities and businesses in England to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling. This will ensure that food waste can be treated through aerobic digestion or composting, delivering significant carbon savings over sending food waste to landfill.