The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has today (26 March) released its response to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) report into food security and wastage in the UK.

The ‘Food security: demand, consumption and waste’ report, published in January, stated that government and retailers ‘must do more’ to reduce the ‘unacceptable’ levels of food waste produced in the UK and help consumers buy more healthy and sustainable options.

Collating evidence given to the committee over its October 2014 inquiry into food security, EFRA warned that the UK will face ongoing pressures on food supplies (due to population increases and climate change), ‘unless action is taken’.

It stated that in light of these food security challenges, the level of food waste that the UK produces (15 million tonnes a year, according to WRAP) is ‘unacceptable economically, socially and environmentally’ and ‘it is essential’ that the government provide WRAP with ‘sufficient public funding such that, alongside investment from other sources such as trusts and charities, it has adequate resources to enable it to maintain momentum in its food waste reduction programmes’. (WRAP, which recently registered as a charity following ongoing budget cuts from central government, addresses food waste through programmes including Love Food Hate Waste and the Courtauld Commitment).

The committee’s recommendations included: setting up a task force to coordinate national work by those involved in redistributing food; appointing a food security coordinator; and commissioning further research into the use of food banks.

Government response

In its government response to the report, Defra welcomed the report findings, but maintained that the WRAP and industry are ‘best placed to act’ (a phrase often used since the department announces it was ‘stepping back’ from work in several areas of waste policy, including anaerobic digestion and food waste).

It stated: ‘Government activities must focus on areas that only government can and must do, i.e. where there is a clear market failure… Food waste remains an area where market failures still exist. Therefore, Defra continues to support WRAP for this work at a level of funding which is broadly similar to that before the review, and an increase in terms of its proportion of overall funding to WRAP. We have ensured that delivery of our food waste objectives remains a top priority for WRAP.’

However, the government department appeared to ignore the recommendation to set up a task force to coordinate national work on establishing an effective food redistribution network across the country (under the remit of a food security coordinator, who would also ‘ensure that food and waste policies inter-link effectively’), instead highlighting work that has been done to date to bring together retailers and food redistribution networks.

‘Industry and charities are best placed to coordinate this work’

It noted that WRAP has coordinated an action plan of work on food redistribution, which includes ‘developing and sharing data to better understand the redistribution landscape and where more surplus food could be obtained for giving to people’.

Defra stated: ‘The action plan also considers the possibility of creating a supply chain working group, which would include work specifically on redistribution. WRAP will be facilitating this work, with industry and charities principally taking ownership to deliver on the action plan. This is preferable to government leading on this work.

‘Industry and charities are best placed to coordinate this work as they have the operational knowledge to put words into action. We agree that government has a role to play and we are fulfilling this by coordinating the relevant stakeholders and fostering a collaborative approach to increasing food redistribution.’

The majority of specific recommendations were also largely glossed over (with Defra predominantly listing work that has been done to date). However, Defra did state that it would not be possible to ‘use data published by Public Health England on nutritional intakes to refine its own estimates so as to take into account food bought but not subsequently consumed’, as the PHE survey only focuses on food actually eaten.

Touching on the recommendation for Defra to commission further research into why more people are using food banks, and to ‘collect objective and statistically robust data on the scale of household food insecurity’, Defra said that it would be ‘reluctant to oblige [food aid] communities to collect data on top of the hard work they are already doing’ and argued that the reasons why people use food banks can be ‘complex’ and encompass ‘economic, social and environmental influences’. It argued therefore that these factors would ‘present continued difficulties with choosing the relevant questions’.

‘This is not a time for government to not take an interest in waste management’

Speaking to Resource this morning, Anne McIntosh, Chair of the EFRA Committee, said that although she thought the government response was “adequate, given the demands on the department”, it needed to take more responsibility for waste.

She said: “We were disappointed [during the inquiry] that government appeared to be stepping back at a time when we thought there was a leadership role, and when the industry and consumers were crying out for help.

“We need a government-led task force to positively encourage best practice on this and look at other avenues for reducing food waste – as we’re currently producing too much waste that is edible. Government should also lead on promoting anaerobic digestion (AD) for genuine food waste, which is inedible, and help disseminate best practice on redistributing surplus, edible food to food banks. Defra is the right department to give the lead on this – and the natural coordinator should be the Resources Minister [Dan Rogerson].”

McIntosh added that food banks have had a role in the UK over the last 30 years, but that getting food to them “should not just rely on the work of charities like the church and The Trussell Trust, but should come from government”.

She concluded: “This is not a time for government to not take an interest in waste management. We’d like to see Defra giving leadership and the minister for waste taking up a coordinating role with his opposite numbers in other departments.”

Read the full government response to the EFRA Committee’s report on food security and wastage.