Quantification of food surplus, waste and related materials in the supply chain

Overview of report:

New research reveals that over half of the food waste generated by the UK manufacturing and retail sectors is avoidable. WRAP’s Food Surplus and Waste Quantification report aims to improve the understanding of food surplus and food waste in the grocery supply chain.

The report highlights that a combination of preventing food waste being generated, redistribution  of food surplus and diverting surplus to animal feed could lead to a 42% reduction in avoidable food waste, saving businesses millions of pounds a year.

Providing business relevant insights, the report quantifies for the first time avoidable food waste by manufacturing sub-sector and examines the reasons why food surplus and waste arise, and how this can be addressed. It will be instrumental in the delivery of Courtauld 2025 which aims to make UK food and drink production and consumption more sustainable.

Updated Food Waste Figures

More recent headline data on food waste for this sector was published by WRAP in May 2018, which can be found here 

Following publication of the main report on food surplus and waste at retail and manufacture, WRAP initiated supplementary work to update estimates for wholesale grocery food surplus and food waste in order to give a more complete picture for the grocery supply chain. The relevant components of the wholesale sector include cash and carry and specialist wholesale markets. A short research note detailing the results of this work was published in November 2016