‘Food redistribution up with retail largest contributor, but nearly 200,000 tones still wasted’

The amount of food saved from becoming waste continues to rise significantly though each year in the UK with retail the largest supplier to the charitable sector, nearly 200,000 tones of perfectly good food still go to waste in the supply chain, climate action NGO WRAP stated recently.

Against a backdrop of rising food prices and impacts on the supply chain, the collective efforts of the UK’s retailers, food manufacturers, hospitality and food service businesses and voluntary sector have still managed an impressive 16 percent increase in surplus food redistribution in 2021. In that year alone, more than 106,000 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of 253 million meals – were redistributed via charitable and commercial outlets with a value of more than £330 million.

In 2021, charities handled six times more surplus food than in 2015.

The commercial sector took the bulk of surplus food from manufacturers in 2021, with retail the largest supplier to the charitable sector. The hospitality and food service sector continues to increase the tonnage of surplus food it redistributes. The types of food redistributed remain similar, with the amount of fresh meat and fish, drinks and ambient food doubling between 2019 and 2021, while fresh produce, dairy, chilled pre-prepared and frozen food all fell in 2021, with bakery and chilled-prepared foods now lower than in 2019.

The figure comes as the latest Food Standards Agency report highlighting the need to increase the amount of food redistributed, to ensure that as much surplus food is redistributed to people rather than going to waste.