Defra food waste initiatives bear fruit

Every year, 190,000 tonnes of edible food goes to waste from retailers and manufacturers which could be redistributed. Defra is taking bold action to tackle this issue head-on – spearheading a number of initiatives to get more surplus food to those who need it.

Last year, the first tranche of our £15 million food waste initiative saw four companies receive a combined £4 million to drive this effort forward. A year on, this ambitious work is bearing real fruit – with new schemes already diverting tonnes of edible food to charity centres across the country and new highly skilled teams in place to find new, innovative ways to reach hard to reach surplus food.

The second fund of £3 million, delivered by our partner organisation WRAP as part of their Resource Action Fund, is currently supporting 17 redistribution organisations carry out Food Waste Prevention work across the country. In light of the coronavirus outbreak, £2 million has been awarded to redistribution organisations to help charities with their food offer during this challenging time, which is still open for small grant applications.




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