A co-ordinated battle to prevent millions of tonnes of food waste is to be launched by retailers and suppliers, The Grocer can reveal.

Industry waste body Wrap has held talks with leading supermarkets and major manufacturers after a damning report by the House of Lords accused the UK of creating almost a fifth of the “shocking” amount of food waste across the EU.

The new agreement, expected to be named Courtauld 2025, will tear up the format of the nine-year-old Courtauld Agreement.

The previous targets for specific stages of the food cycle to cut household food waste, supply chain waste and waste from packaging will be replaced by the new system, which will instead be based on the full life- cycle impact of products.

Set to run from 2016, it will put a much stronger emphasis on the battle to prevent food waste in light of the looming threat of global food shortages and resource scarcity caused by population growth.

Courtauld 2025 will attempt to make food waste prevention a key part of the procurement and design process in the food and drink industry, bring about co-ordinated improvements in supply chain efficiency, change the way households consume (and waste) food and come up with a new system for recycling by-products.

“We see the potential for the new approach to reduce the amount of food waste by millions of tonnes and to save billions in costs,” said Dr Richard Swannell, director of design and waste prevention at Wrap.

The cost to the UK of household waste is estimated by Wrap to be £12.5bn a year, the equivalent of £60 a month for the average family.

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