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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of trends in the level of food waste in each of the last five years; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce the amount of food wasted by (a) consumers, (b) supermarkets and (c) restaurants.

Periodic estimates of UK annual food waste levels are undertaken by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) with government funding:

• 2007 – 11.2 million tonnes
• 2015 – 10 million tonnes
• 2018 – 9.5 million tonnes

Defra is investing £2.6 million this year to combat food waste. That includes working with and funding WRAP to address food waste in households and industry.

The Government’s funding supports the Courtauld 2030 Commitment, a voluntary agreement with the food industry with a target to halve food waste by 2030.

As well as tackling waste across supply chains, Courtauld signatories play a key role in providing consumers with support in reducing food waste at home, for example, by offering storage advice and appropriate labelling. The Government also funds WRAP's consumer campaigns such as Food Waste Action Week and Love Food Hate Waste (https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/), which aim to raise public awareness of food waste and the ways in which individuals can reduce it.

Defra also funds WRAP’s Guardians of Grub campaign and online learning programme (https://guardiansofgrub.com/) which aims to support the hospitality and food service sector to reduce food waste and associated costs. The aim is to embed good practice across the sector, to raise awareness of where food waste is arising and to take action by using free tools and resources.

Additionally, the Government is currently consulting on options to improve food waste reporting by large businesses; evidence shows measuring leads to a reduction in food waste: Improved food waste reporting by large food businesses in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).