Roadmap aims to see 50% UK food waste reduction within a year

Eighty nine of the UK’s largest retailers, food producers, manufacturers, and hospitality and food service companies, including Tesco, Unilever, 2 Sisters and Brakes, have committed to ambitious milestones laid out in a new industry Food Waste Reduction Roadmap. Developed with charities the Institute of Grocery Development (IGD) and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Roadmap encompasses the entire supply chain from field to fork. It’s essentially a toolkit that highlights the actions large businesses and in their suppliers can take to reduce food waste, with guidance and templates to help them ‘Target, Measure and Act’ on food waste and help consumers do the same. Supported by the UK’s largest food trade bodies, businesses across the supply chain and Defra, Welsh and Scottish Governments, the initial aim is to see fifty per cent of the UK’s largest 250 food businesses measuring, reporting and acting on food waste within a year, and all 250 doing so by 2026. 
Marcus Gover, CEO of WRAP, explains “Together, WRAP and IGD have mobilised industry leaders to create a bold sector-wide Roadmap, showing clearly what UK businesses must do. This Roadmap is hugely ambitious, and I’m delighted that the UK is the first country anywhere to set a nation-wide plan towards delivering its part in SDG 12.3. There are many businesses working hard already, but many more need to focus on food waste. If the food sector follows this Roadmap, it will significantly accelerate work to achieving both Courtauld 2025, and SDG12.3 targets. I urge other companies to adopt the principles laid out in the Roadmap and join the rest of the sector on this historic journey.”
Marcus Gover will also launch The Food Waste Atlas in New York later today at the annual event of Champions 12.3; organised by the World Resources Institute (WRI). Atlas is the world’s first global reporting portal to allow the capture and reporting of global food loss and waste data in one place. 
Businesses wishing to access the free resources and find out more about the using the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap should click here.