Revealed: Farmers’ union successfully lobbied against food waste transparency

Successful lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and other industry groups means the millions of tonnes of food wasted by companies each year can be kept secret, documents obtained by openDemocracy reveal.

Environment secretary Thérèse Coffey in August cancelled a proposal to require large businesses to measure and publish how much food they waste, meaning the true scale of the problem will remain hidden.

Coffey’s own department had advised that mandatory reporting would reduce food waste, save businesses money and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But the NFU argued in a submission obtained through freedom of information law that public reporting would “just provide more red tape” and create a risk of “bad press” that could threaten contracts.

A few trade associations and big food companies also lobbied against the proposal, including the Association of Convenience Stores, Kellogg’s, Pizza Express and Associated British Foods, which owns Kingsmill, Jordans, Allinson’s, Ryvita, Twinings and other food brands.

However, the majority of large supermarket chains, food manufacturers and hospitality businesses supported mandatory reporting, as did Costa and McDonald’s.

Businesses making and selling food waste 1.9 million tonnes of edible food a year, according to research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) charity.

Another 2.9 million tonnes of edible food is wasted on farms, equivalent to 18 million meals a day, according to separate research by the environmental group WWF. Food waste on farms is caused partly by supermarkets cancelling orders at the last minute or setting tight specifications on the size and appearance of fruit and vegetables.

A farmer last month revealed that 60 tonnes of “perfect” salad potatoes had been wasted because the supermarket he had been growing for decided it no longer wanted that variety and cancelled the order.

Total annual food waste in the UK, including the 4.5 million tonnes of edible food wasted by households, causes more than 30 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) proposed last year that food businesses in England employing more than 250 people would have to measure their food waste from April 2024, and report it publicly a year later.

Defra said in a consultation document that requiring transparent reporting of food waste would “spur companies into taking the necessary targeted action”. More food would be “redistributed to the most vulnerable” and businesses would have lower costs, which could result in cheaper food in supermarkets.

It added: “Evidence suggests that a £1 investment by businesses in action to reduce food waste yields a £14 return.”

It noted that supermarkets which voluntarily report publicly on their food waste had significantly reduced it after they began publishing the data, with Co-op cutting waste by 29% between 2015 and 2018 and Tesco by 8% between 2013/14 and 2018/19.

However, only a small minority of more than 690 large food businesses in the UK reported publicly on their food waste last year. A total of 221 businesses gave data on their food waste to WRAP for use in anonymous aggregated industry statistics. Of those 221, 65 reported some of their food waste data publicly but not necessarily the overall tonnages.

By contrast to the NFU and the handful of manufacturers who opposed mandatory reporting, most supermarkets supported the proposals in their consultation responses, which openDemocracy obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Tesco said: “Mandatory reporting would increase the priority of addressing food waste across all businesses in scope and will encourage action.”

Asda said: “We agree that food waste reporting can help lead to a reduction in food waste, bringing financial and environmental benefits and reductions associated with packaging waste.”

Overall, 79% of retailers who responded supported mandatory reporting, as did 76% of hospitality businesses, 53% of food manufacturers and all but one out of 3,754 individuals.

But the NFU strongly opposed mandatory reporting.

It said: “The public reporting of data is a significant issue for our members, given the potential for unintended consequences that may arise from any potential media coverage. Even when focused on retailers, this may lead to grower/producers being delisted in the next contracting round in favour of others who are further along on their food waste measurement process, as retailers strive to avoid bad press.”

Most NFU members are too small to have been directly affected by the mandatory reporting requirement, but some, including very large livestock and fruit and vegetable producers, would have had to measure and publish their waste.

Martin Lines, chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said mandatory reporting would help farmers because it would expose the waste caused by retailers cancelling orders.

He said: “We need to be as transparent as possible because it's not only the waste of a product, it is the energy resources that have gone into that product that have been wasted: the fertiliser, the pesticides, everything else. We're wasting very precious natural resources [and] fossil fuel.

“If we're going to reach net zero, we need to see where improvements are being made, and make sure they get rewarded, but also see where the challenges are. If we don't record it and publish it openly, it's all behind closed doors.”

Jessica Sinclair Taylor of Feedback, a charity that campaigns to reduce food waste, said: “It is deeply disappointing to see the NFU failing to stand up for the environment, and for their members, by blocking transparency on food waste by retailers and wholesalers.

“We know from over a decade’s work directly with farmers that food waste on farms is driven by retailers’ practices – no farmer wants to see the food they’ve put time, energy and money into growing go to waste.

“With other farming groups throwing their weight behind transparency, it is so shortsighted that both the NFU and the government prefer to quash progress on a vital climate issue in favour of a paltry ‘business as usual’ approach. Halving food waste could save around 800,000 hectares of cropland in the UK and abroad.”

Associated British Foods said in its response: “We do not regard it as necessary or cost effective to impose mandatory reporting.” It also opposed a proposal for independent verification of the data, saying this would add “significant additional costs”.

When approached by openDemocracy, the company said it had “no objection in principle to making food waste reporting mandatory” but some aspects of the government’s proposal would “add considerable avoidable cost”. It also said it would be reporting detailed food waste data for its UK grocery businesses for the first time in November.

Feedback’s lawyers last month wrote to Coffey warning that the group may launch a High Court challenge to her decision to abandon mandatory reporting on the grounds that it was not based on a reasonable or rational response to the evidence received in the consultation.

The government’s response to the consultation feedback said the costs to businesses of mandatory reporting were “too high” despite its own impact assessment finding that food waste costs the UK £19bn a year, and any costs from measurement and reporting of it would be offset by only a 0.25% reduction in food waste.

Coffey instead decided to continue with “a voluntary approach” until at least mid-2025 even though her department had found, from the consultation, that “the number of businesses voluntarily reporting food waste has stalled and is expected to plateau”.

WRAP has advised that mandatory food waste reporting is essential for the UK to halve food waste by 2030, in line with the global target agreed by all countries under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.

Olivia Blake, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, last month tabled an Early Day Motion calling for mandatory food waste reporting for medium and large businesses. It has been signed by 20 MPs: 16 Labour, two independent, one Green and one SNP.

David Exwood, NFU vice president and an arable, beef and sheep farmer in West Sussex, defended the union’s rejection of mandatory reporting.

Speaking to openDemocracy, he said: “Why add in a layer of bureaucracy when we don’t see it as a significant issue for the sector? I think we’ve got to start from the premise that there isn’t huge amounts of waste in the industry anyway.”

He said there was no waste on his farm: “Every tonne of grain we produce is stored and sold. We just sell it to different markets depending on what specification the grain is. The same with the beef. There’s no wastage in a beef animal – it all gets sold and used through the food chain.”

A WRAP spokesperson said: “WRAP has always outlined the benefits possible from mandatory food waste reporting in encouraging more businesses to act.

“Businesses that measure and report food waste through WRAP have made significant progress in reducing both food waste and costs to their businesses. In 2022, retailers representing 97% of the market reported a reduction in food wasted of 19,000 tonnes, equivalent to £62 million of food that did not end up as waste.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “We remain committed to tackling food waste and our response to our recent consultation outlines that enhancing the voluntary approach to food waste reporting is the government preference at this time.”