Food: Waste
(asked on 15th October 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the (a) quantity of food produced in the UK that was wasted in each of the last five years and (b) environmental and economic cost of that waste.
This question was answered on 25th October 2021
Defra funds the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to produce periodic estimates of UK food waste levels post-farm-gate. Whilst the next report is not due until 2022, previous reports show significant reductions:
- 2007 - 11.2 million tonnes
- 2015 - 10 million tonnes
- 2018 - 9.5 million tonnes
WRAP estimate that this waste has an economic value of £19 billion.