Emma Lewell-Buck MP has today shown her support for Kerry McCarthy MP’s Food Waste (Reduction) Bill which will tackle the scandal of food waste.
The UK is one of the most wasteful countries in the European Union when it comes to food, throwing away 15 million tonnes per year. This at the same time as more than one million people have had to turn to their local food bank to feed themselves and their families is totally immoral.
Consumers have reduced their food waste by over 20% since 2007, but over half of all food waste occurs before it even reaches our shopping bags through loss and wastage from producers, processors, distributors and retailers. So far voluntary action by the industry is failing to deliver results so this legislation is essential. The Bill includes measures to oblige supermarkets to donate unsold edible food, currently only 2% of edible food waste is redistributed to food redistribution charities, it would also require large supermarkets and manufacturers to transparently report and publish their food waste across the supply chain and would set out in legislation the United Nations target of halving food waste by 2030.
Emma who is one of the sponsors of the Bill said,
“As a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty where we identified re-distributing and using surplus food as the ‘next big breakthrough’ in eliminating UK hunger I am very proud to be a sponsor of this Bill. It is a scandal that food is being wasted on such a huge scale, especially when people are queuing at food banks and children are going to bed hungry. Supermarkets must take more responsibility for the large quantities of food waste they cause in their supply chain. At present around a third of all food produced is wasted, putting additional pressure on scarce land and resources. We also need to reverse the current situation which can make it cheaper for companies to dispose of good food than donate it to people in need. I hope this Bill will see the UK leading international efforts to halve food waste by 2030.”
