PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Food: Waste (4 January 2022)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to enshrine in law sustainable development goal 12.3, on halving per capita food waste by 2030.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

The UK is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030. There is a programme in place to achieve this domestically including support for the Courtauld Commitment 2030 voluntary agreement with industry and consumer campaigns. Robust estimates of national food waste volumes are made periodically and used to monitor and report progress against the SDG 12.3 target. The Government has no plans to make this target legally binding.

Since 2007, action to reduce food waste in the UK has contributed to a reduction in post-farm gate total food waste between 2007 and 2018 of around 15% (1.7Mt). Excluding inedible parts, the reduction was 21%.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
11 January 2022