The committee is assessing the economic, social, and environmental impact of food waste in England with a focus on consumers, the retail and hospitality sectors, and local government.
While agriculture is outside the scope, the NFU has submitted evidence due to the impact retail decisions have on agricultural food waste. Food waste is costly for the farmer and has a negative impact on the environment. Decisions made further up the supply chain by retailers and consumers can have a direct impact on food waste on-farm during harvesting and processing.
The NFU evidence focuses on the following areas:
- The impact of decisions made at retail and consumer level and their effect on food waste along the entire food supply chain, including on-farm food losses.
- The most common causes of food waste at a farm level include retailer standards, cancelled orders and over-production.
- Policy proposals to reduce food waste including altering specifications, aligning promotional campaigns to production, taking action on cancelled orders, improved forecasting and increasing the generation of data.