Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are among more than 30 food businesses calling for government action to tackle food waste.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and anti-food waste organisation Too Good To Go have led an open letter, with signatories including M&S, Lidl, Waitrose, Danone, Nestle and Innocent Drinks, urging the government to introduce mandatory public food waste reporting.
The letter, which is addressed to environment secretary Steve Barclay, comes as more than a third of all food produced currently goes to waste.
Food waste costs the UK economy £21.8bn per year, contributing 10% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
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BRC director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said: “While most retailers already report voluntarily through WRAP’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, mandatory reporting will enable greater transparency across the supply chain.
“Retailers will continue to engage with the government to ensure that the system works for all stakeholders, and that it aligns across the four UK nations.”
Aldi UK national sustainability director Liz Fox added: “It is important that we tackle the critical issue of food waste as an industry, and mandatory food waste reporting would be a significant step forward in doing just that.
“Food waste reporting, and analysing opportunities for improvements, has already helped us achieve one of our food waste targets early – and allowed us to be even bolder in setting a new waste-reduction goal.”
In January, Tesco was forced to halve its food waste reduction figures, after admitting that tens of thousands of tonnes of food waste it claimed had been sent for animal feed was instead sent to anaerobic digestion.
The supermarket, which has been vocal about transparency on food waste reporting, corrected its food waste figures from 45% between 2016 to 2017 and 2022 to 2023, to just 18%.
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