Food waste in the United Kingdom is a subject of environmental, and socioeconomic concern that has received widespread media coverage and been met with varying responses from government. Since 1915, food waste has been identified as a considerable problem and has been the subject of ongoing media attention, intensifying with the launch of the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign in 2007. Food waste has been discussed in newspaper articles, news reports and television programmes, which have increased awareness of it as a public issue. To tackle waste issues, encompassing food waste, the government-funded "Waste & Resources Action Programme" (WRAP) was created in 2000.
A significant proportion of food waste is produced by the domestic household, which in 2022, created 6.4 million tonnes of food waste (95kg or £250 per person); WRAP website, ‘’Household Food and Drink Waste UK 2021-22’’ most of this was made up of salads and fresh vegetables. A majority of food waste food is avoidable, with the rest being divided almost equally into foods which are unavoidable, due to being inedible (e.g. tea bags) and those that are unavoidable due to preference (e.g. bread crusts) or cooking type (e.g. potato skins).
Reducing the amount of food waste has been deemed critical if the UK is to meet international targets on climate change, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and obligations under the European Landfill Directive to reduce biodegradable waste going to landfill. Equally great emphasis has been placed on the reduction of food waste as a means of ending hunger. In the context of the 2007–2008 world food price crisis, food waste was discussed at the 34th G8 summit in Hokkaidō, Japan. The then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said of the issue: "We must do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste".
In June 2009, the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the Government's "War on waste", a programme aimed at reducing Britain's food waste. The proposed plans under the scheme included: scrapping best before and limiting sell by labels on food, creating new food packaging sizes, constructing more "on-the-go" recycling points and unveiling five flagship anaerobic digestion plants. Two years after its launch, the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign was claiming it had already prevented 137,000 tonnes of waste and, through the help it had given to over 2,000,000 households, had made savings of £300,000,000. Successive governments have continued to tackle food waste in the UK, with a number of objectives specified in the December 2018 "Resources and Waste Strategy" and in 2023 the UK became part of the UN Food System Summit Coalition, that seeks to half the amount of global food waste by 2030. By the end of March 2026, weekly food waste collections had been introduced by most councils, as a result of government policy, with exceptions occurring when existing waste contracts prevented this being possible.
History
Early 20th century
Food waste was identified as a problem in the UK as early as World War I. Combating food waste was one of the initial goals of the Women's Institutes (WI), set up in 1915, and remains a subject of their campaigns. Rationing was adopted during World War I, although it was voluntary, from February 1917; it was only between December 1917 and February 1918 that rationing began, in stages, to be made compulsory. Available on Google books. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that by 1918 fines were imposed on either individuals or businesses for wasting food. Meanwhile, in the United States (where shortages were hardly comparable), legislators considered laws restricting the distribution of food in order to cut waste, breaches of which might be punishable by fines or imprisonment.
During World War II, rationing was imposed almost immediately. Restrictions were immediately more stringent than in World War I: with effect from 8 January 1940, ration books were issued and most foods were subject to ration. By August 1940, food waste was an imprisonable offence under the law. Posters encouraged kitchen waste to be used for feeding animals, primarily swine but also poultry.
Late 20th century
Many of the methods suggested by current campaigns to prevent food waste have taken inspiration from those of World War II. Despite this, it remains debatable whether the waste campaigns and rationing, during and post-WWII, achieved any long-term change in people's attitudes towards waste; WRAP's 2007 report on domestic household waste found that older people generate as much avoidable waste as younger people.Ventour 2008, pp. 181-3. Love Food Hate Waste Australia website, The Food We Waste, Lorrayne Ventour, 2008 Further, as early as 1980, only twenty-five years after rationing was fully abolished, a journal article published that year found significant levels of waste at home, in restaurants and in sectors of the food industry. However, the rising amount of food waste could also be attributed to a change of lifestyle, for instance the buying of produce which has a shorter shelf life; which would involuntarily lead to more food being thrown away.
By the late 1990s, things had worsened, and the food manufacturing sector was estimated to be generating over 8,000,000 tonnes of food waste annually.Thankappan, p. 1. A documentary in 1998 revealed tonnes of edible food being discarded at a Tesco store, provoking a renewed response on the issue of food waste.
Early 21st century In 2000, the UK Government created the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a government-funded, not-for-profit company that advises on how to reduce waste and use resources efficiently. In 2007, WRAP launched the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign and returned food waste to the forefront of the news and public agenda. Two years later, the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign claimed to have prevented 137,000 tonnes of waste being sent to landfill and saved £300,000,000.
In 2005, facing "limited information about the amounts and types of food waste produced", WRAP launched a "major research programme"Ventour, p. 12. which would lead to the publishing of "The food we waste report" on 8 May 2008. Believed at the time to be "the first of its kind in the world", the report interviewed 2,175 householders and collected waste from 2,138 of them.Ventour, p. 13.
Since the developments of 2007–08, food waste has continued to be a subject of attention, discussed in almost every major UK newspaper, often with issues such as climate change and famine in African nations. To reduce the impact of the aforementioned, food waste has been among the topics of discussion at recent International Summits; food waste was debated during the 34th G8 summit in Hokkaidō, Japan, as part of the discussion on the 2007–2008 world food price crisis.
In June 2009, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the "War on waste", new government plans aimed at reducing Britain's food waste. It was planned to remove "best before" labels and limit the "sell by" labels on foods. New food packaging sizes are planned to be introduced, coming as EU rules on packaging sizes are lifted and people are increasingly living alone. Five flagship anaerobic digestion plants with "cutting-edge technology" were to be built before the end of March 2011; they would together receive a grant of £10,000,000 from WRAP's "Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Programme". Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive Officer, said of the five projects: "These projects are truly ground-breaking. Between them, they demonstrate how anaerobic digestion can help the UK efficiently meet the challenges of reducing carbon emissions and improving sustainable food production."
The UK Government's "Resources and Waste Strategy", published in December 2018, set out current government policy on "how we will preserve our stock of material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy". In relation to food waste, chapter 5 of the strategy set out objectives to: redistribute surplus food more effectively to those who need it most, before it can go to waste consult on annual reporting of food surplus and waste generated by larger food businesses consult on legal powers to introduce mandatory food waste targets and surplus food redistribution obligations publish a new food surplus and waste hierarchy promote awareness of the food waste issue by appointing a new food waste champion, and support cross sector collaboration through the Courtauld 2025 commitment.Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs / Environment Agency, Resources and waste strategy: at a glance, updated 18 December 2018, accessed 29 December 2020 Text was copied from this source, which is available under an Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.
In 2018, Ben Elliot was appointed by Michael Gove, then the Secretary of State for Environment, as the government's first Food Surplus and Waste Champion.Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Gove appoints Food Waste Champion, published 31 December 2018, accessed 29 December 2020 He stepped down in 2022. Materials Recycling World website, King Charles to launch initiative on Food Waste, article by Mark Smulian dated 30 August 2023
In 2023, the UK government joined the UN Food System Summit Coalition, with the aim of halving global food waste by 2030. Farming News website, UK joins global drive to cut food waste, article dated 9 March 2023
Reducing food waste in the UK is a key aim of the think tank The Food Policy Institute Food Policy Institute, Food Waste Reforms: Like most food reform comes with the hope of behaviour change, article dated 11 February 2026
The "Simper Recycling in England" policy update, published by the UK Government in November 2024, aimed to simplify household and workplace recycling, including for food waste, standardising what can be recycled across England and stipulated the requirement for local authorities to provide weekly food waste collections for households by the 31 March 2026, unless prevented to do so by an existing waste disposal contract.
Causes
In 2021, WRAP noted that total food waste in the UK was at 10.7 million tonnes, with about 60% of this coming from households, 28% coming from farming and manufacturing, hospitality making up approximately 10% and retail contributing 3%; WRAP website, Household Food Waste Requires Action, article dated May 2024 UK Government website, Commons Library section, Food Waste in the UK, article dated 12 April 2024 WRAP also noted that the figures had been going down for 10 years, but had started to rise again during Covid.
Other surveys noted that domestic food waste had gone down during the pandemic as most people used up more food to avoid going outside to busy shops; however, farming waste may have gone up due to the shutdown of cafes and restaurants. Speciality Food Magazine website, How has Covid-19 impacted the UK’s fight against food waste?, article dated 10 September 2020
2007
Households +Domestic food waste in the UK in 2007Hogg, p. 12. Category England Wales Scotland N. Ireland UK Household waste(1000s of tonnes) 25,688 1,585 2,276 919 30,468 Composition of foodWaste (% household) 17.5% 18% 18% 19% 17.6% Quantity of food waste(1000s of tonnes) 4,495 285 410 184 5,375 The single largest producer of food waste in the United Kingdom is the domestic household. In 2007, households created 6,700,000 tonnes of food waste - accounting for 19 per cent of all municipal solid waste. In 2007, potatoes accounted for the largest quantity of avoidable food disposed of; 359,000 tonnes per year were thrown away, 49 per cent (177,400 tonnes) of which were untouched.Ventour, p. 27. Bread slices accounted for the second food type most disposed of (328,000 tonnes per year) Apples were the third (190,000 tonnes per year).