Food Waste Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Earl Cathcart
Main Page: Earl Cathcart (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Earl Cathcart's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(8 years ago)
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Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, the first thing I would say is that I very much appreciate the valuable work that FareShare, Company Shop and the Oxford food bank are doing. It is absolutely essential that good surplus food does not go to waste but is directed in the waste hierarchy first for human consumption and then, if it is not fit for that, for animal consumption. The waste hierarchy is very important. I will take up the Oxford issue, because 95% of all supermarkets are engaged in the Courtauld Commitment, and part of that is precisely directed to the redistribution of food.
Earl Cathcart (Con)
My Lords, what is the annual cost to families of wasting food, and what are the environmental emission consequences of food wastage?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, the cost of what is wasted is £470 a year for the average household, and £700 a year for the average household with children. In turn, avoidable food waste is the equivalent of the CO2 emissions produced by over 7 million cars per year.