PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Food: Waste (15 October 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the (a) quantity of food produced in the UK that was wasted in each of the last five years and (b) environmental and economic cost of that waste.

Asked by:
Feryal Clark (Labour)

Defra funds the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to produce periodic estimates of UK food waste levels post-farm-gate. Whilst the next report is not due until 2022, previous reports show significant reductions:

• 2007 - 11.2 million tonnes
• 2015 - 10 million tonnes
• 2018 - 9.5 million tonnes

WRAP estimate that this waste has an economic value of £19 billion.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
25 October 2021