Nestle and top supermarket chains will tackle “scandal” of food waste, says Michael Gove

Nestle, which is one of York’s largest employers, along with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, will take part in an event today as part of plans to end the “scandal” of millions of tonnes of excess food being wasted every year.

Around 300 individuals and businesses have been invited to the Step Up To The Plate symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum in central London. The organisations taking part are expected to adopt a package of commitments to tackle the issue.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Government minister Therese Coffey will be among the first to sign up, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Speaking at the event, Mr Gove is expected to say that throwing away millions of tonnes of food is an “environmental, economic and moral scandal”.

He will add: “Every year, millions of tonnes of good, nutritious food is thrown away. This is an environmental, economic and moral scandal, and I am determined to tackle it.

“I urge businesses to join me in signing the pledge to deliver real change to stop good food going to waste.”

The symposium is being hosted by the Government’s food surplus and waste champion Ben Elliot, who is expected to tell delegates: “Climate change is no longer a buzzword - we must all stand up and be counted. We squander 10m tonnes of food and drink every year.

“Businesses throw away food worth an estimated £5bn and £15bn is wasted from our homes - the emissions this creates is the equivalent of every third car on the road. We simply must put an end to this.”

Friends of the Earth has warned that around a third of all food produced for human consumption never reaches the consumer’s table, causing a massive waste of the natural resources used for growing, processing, packaging, transporting and marketing food.

The UK currently wastes 10.2m tonnes of food a year, with 1.8m coming from food manufacture, one million from the hospitality sector, 260,000 from retail and the rest from households, Defra said. Businesses are expected to set their own targets to help contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of halving per capita global food waste by 2030.

The Government also wants attendees to adopt the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap to help companies measure and report on efforts to cut back waste.

Devised by WRAP, a non-profit sustainability organisation, and IGD, a research and training charity, the roadmap already boasts supermarket giants such as Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons among the signatories to its principles.

Businesses are also being asked to take part in a Food Conservation week of action in November. In 2017, the retail and food manufacturing sectors wasted 205,000 tonnes of surplus food, Defra said, with 100,000 tonnes, equal to 250m meals a year, of this surplus food estimated by WRAP to be accessible and edible.

The Government has committed to investing £15m in tackling food waste and published a Resources and Waste Strategy in December.

It also plans to consult on mandatory annual reporting of food surplus and waste by food businesses and on establishing legal powers to introduce targets for waste prevention.