Food Retailers Fail To Meet Waste Targets

British food retailers have fallen short of their target to cut food and packaging waste in the grocery supply chain by five percent.

Thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables, dairy products and packaging are wasted every year because they do not comply with shape, size or standard policies.

The pledge was made in 2010, but the industry has only managed to cut waste by 0.4%, the equivalent of 10,000 tonnes. The total amount of waste produced is 6.6 million tonnes a year.

Bob Gordon, head of environment at the British Retail Consortium, said, “This is a relatively new target and while it is disappointing that we have not met it, it needs more time because it is not a straight-forward issue.

“We could reduce packaging, for example, but that could increase food waste,” he added.

Retailers have met other environmental targets early, such as the aim to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills to below 15% by 2013. In 2011, the figure was already reduced to 14%.

Caroline Spelman, environment secretary, added, “It’s important all concerned build on this and work to create a green economy, by finding innovative ways to minimise waste, introduce resource efficiency measures, and use water and raw materials more sparingly.”