The government has called on food, retail and hospitality firms to commit to ambitious new food waste targets as part of a UN goal of halving food waste by 2030.
Nestle, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have all signed up to the pledge, which will see them adopt a series of self-imposed targets. The pledges came amid the Step Up To The Plate symposium, organised by the government to help highlight the issue of food waste.
The symposium builds on the government’s Resources and Waste strategy, launched earlier in May, which seeks to overhaul England’s waste system by stressing the responsibility of producers in preventing and eliminating waste. As part of the plans to reduce food waste, the government has also signalled it may set mandatory targets on food waste prevention.