In 2022, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) ran a consultation that was looking at ways to improve food waste reporting by large food businesses in England.
However, despite great support for the measures to require food waste measurement and reporting for large businesses, the government decided to ditch this plan, as they think that mandatory food waste reporting would increase prices in supermarkets, also driving inflation.
Instead, the government opted for keeping food waste reporting voluntary, in line with the WRAP's Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, as it was concluded that 140 large food businesses already report food waste that way.
Additionally, the government argues that the costs of introducing mandatory reporting would be significant for the organisations that would need to implement the new measures, where the government estimates that the total average annual reporting costs to businesses would be £5.3 million, which equates up to £32,362 per year for a business new to food waste reporting.
The government's stance on this issue angered campaigners, who criticised the government for ditching the plans, despite the overwhelming support for the proposed measures, which would also help to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the sector.
A senior policy and campaigns manager at Feedback, Martin Bowman, said that this was "an immediately achievable goal" which would "more than offset the costs of measurement and reporting, saving millions of pounds, and helping struggling families by lowering food inflation".
"After a decade of failed voluntary reporting, it is a dereliction of duty for the government to abandon this policy" he added.
The co-founder of Too Good To Go app, Jamie Crummie said: "Food waste contributes 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing the aviation industry’s impact. As we are witnessing the devastating effect of climate change first-hand across Europe this summer, a decision like this from DEFRA feels particularly disheartening."
Some retailers also expressed disappointment, with Tesco saying: "Publishing food waste data is vital and must be mandatory if the UK is to achieve sustainable development goal 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030."
DEFRA's own impact assessment of food waste measuring and reporting found that just a 0.25% reduction of food waste at any stage of the production would balance out any costs of measuring and reporting it, with food waste measurement costing around £19 for each tonne measured, compared with between £1,189 and £3,099 of savings for each tonne of food waste reduced.
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