Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) work with businesses and food producers to reduce food waste and (b) raise public awareness about food waste and how it can be reduced.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government has invested £3.5m in the last year to combat food waste. That includes funding the Waste and Resources Action Plan (WRAP) and through them we work to address food waste in households and supply chains. We support the Courtauld 2030 Commitment, a voluntary agreement with industry to tackle food waste, which includes a target of a 50% per capita reduction in food waste by 2030 against a 2007 baseline. Action through Courtauld includes working with businesses to measure and reduce food waste through the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and the key tool to Target Measure and Act on waste. Courtauld signatories also play a key role in providing consumers with support in reducing food waste at home for instance through offering storage advice and appropriate labelling.

https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink/initiatives/courtauld-commitment

The Government also funds WRAP’s citizen campaigns such as Food Waste Action Week and Love Food Hate Waste, which aim to raise public awareness of food waste and the ways in which citizens can reduce it. This includes advice on how to shop for, store and cook foods in ways that minimise waste.

https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

From 2025 the Government also plans to introduce separate weekly food waste collections for every household in England. Research has shown that helping people to understand what they throw away can help them to cut down on food waste.