A landmark commitment by retailers snd suppliers to tackle food waste has been relaunched, and some of its ambitions watered down, after it failed to hit key targets because of the pandemic and cost of living crisis.
Wrap and IGD, which launched the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap in 2018, also blamed the government’s delay in its promise to introduce mandatory reporting on food waste for the lack of sign-up.
Although around a third of major food and drink companies have signed up to the roadmap, Wrap told The Grocer the industry needed to act “much further and much faster” if it was to achieve its target of halving food waste by 2030, in line with the UN goal.
Some 300 food businesses have signed up to the roadmap, including all the major grocery retailers. However, it has struggled to get input from a long list of smaller producers. It originally planned to have 75% of large businesses “targeting, measuring and acting” on food waste by the end of 2022.
However, the latest figures show whilst 32 % are measuring and reporting on food waste, just 18% have a target and only 14% have acted to successfully reduce food waste.
Under the relaunched plan, whilst the 2030 target remains, Wrap and IGD have abandoned some of the original landmark targets, including having 100% of the UK´s large food businesses implementing ‘Target, Measure, Act’ by 2026, with currently only around 220 large businesses implementing the required measures out of an estimated 600.
Instead the new roadmap aims to have 80% of companies hitting a target by 2025 (95% by 2028), 85% measuring and reporting by 2025 (95% by 2028) and 70% acting by 2025 (95% by 2028).
Wrap and IGD have also published a raft of new detailed guidance and support to help companies, which it says will be continually updated with the latest information to enable them to tackle food waste more effectively and be more transparent.
Wrap is also working with the new Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) to develop new metrics, which it is hoped will form the basis for mandatory reporting across the supply chain, on areas including food waste and wider impacts on Scope 3 emissions.
It is already trialling the scheme with companies including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Bidfood.
However, ministers have so far shied away from introducing mandatory reporting, even for larger companies, which Wrap said had led to a significant impact, alongside the economic situation, on lack of take-up.
“We’re still waiting to hear on the position for mandatory food waste reporting, which would obviously be an absolute game-changer in terms of the number of businesses required to report,” said Wrap’s head of business collaboration Helen Bird.
“Having a third of large businesses sign up is a great achievement and we are proud of the work we’ve done with IGD, particularly in reduction of food waste across retail, but we are saying as an industry we need to step up.
“We know all of this is not enough – we need significantly more action at pace and at scale.
“We need to go much, much further and faster.”
Former Tesco food waste boss Mark Little, now director of health and sustainability at IGD, said: “The Food Waste Reduction Roadmap has made significant progress in the four years since launch, often against the backdrop of a hugely challenging external environment.
“As well as the environmental and social imperative for businesses to reduce their food waste, there’s also a compelling business case to do so. It’s therefore crucial we keep mobilising our industry to reduce food waste, and we look forward to supporting our industry to do so.”
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