Estimated total UK post farm-gate food and drink waste is around 10 million tonnes per year, 70% of which could have been avoided. This has a value of over £20 billion a year, and is associated with around 22 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Levels of food and drink waste by commercial and industrial businesses in the food sector amount to around 3.1 million tonnes, with a value of over £5.1 billion
I would like to keep track of how much waste supermarkets around me produce so that I buy food from more responsible supermarkets.
Who are the stakeholders?
Local supermarkets, food chain stores, restaurants, farmers, charities
What is currently being done to solve this problem?
Courtauld 2025 is the UK’s national voluntary agreement,
covering food waste as well as associated sustainability issues such as water use in the
supply chain and greenhouse gas emission intensity of products. Courtauld 2025 commits
signatories to a 20% reduction in their food and drink waste arising in the UK between 2015
and 2025. The Courtauld Commitment (CC) has not attracted
sufficient support among food suppliers (Quinn 2017) and the voluntary nature of the
commitments make them vulnerable to insufficient action to achieve the targets. A more
ambitious global target is available in the form of the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) of halving food waste from farm to fork by 2030. Tesco and Aldi are so far the
only UK supermarkets to sign up to the SDG, and Tesco has called for businesses to go
beyond Courtauld and to meet this 50% reduction in food waste from farm to fork by 2030
(Quinn 2017a).
In 2018 France had the highest food sustainability index.
Map taken from the Food Sustainability Index 2018, which can be consulted at www.foodsustainability.eiu.com.
Name Gigi
Describe the problem you'd like to solve
Who are the stakeholders? Local supermarkets, food chain stores, restaurants, farmers, charities
What is currently being done to solve this problem?
Courtauld 2025 is the UK’s national voluntary agreement, covering food waste as well as associated sustainability issues such as water use in the supply chain and greenhouse gas emission intensity of products. Courtauld 2025 commits signatories to a 20% reduction in their food and drink waste arising in the UK between 2015 and 2025. The Courtauld Commitment (CC) has not attracted sufficient support among food suppliers (Quinn 2017) and the voluntary nature of the commitments make them vulnerable to insufficient action to achieve the targets. A more ambitious global target is available in the form of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of halving food waste from farm to fork by 2030. Tesco and Aldi are so far the only UK supermarkets to sign up to the SDG, and Tesco has called for businesses to go beyond Courtauld and to meet this 50% reduction in food waste from farm to fork by 2030 (Quinn 2017a).
In 2018 France had the highest food sustainability index.
Map taken from the Food Sustainability Index 2018, which can be consulted at www.foodsustainability.eiu.com.
Inspiration FareShare-foodcloud app
References:
How to measure food waste and loss - guidance for supermarkets WRAP report/stats Feedback Charity's Food Waste Scorecard Campaign pdf report Global Food Waste Index Report 2018