Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage households to (a) reduce food waste and (b) increase awareness of food waste.

Rory Stewart

Working through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), we are increasing awareness of food waste and helping households waste less and save money through the Courtauld Commitment and the Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign. These have contributed to a 15% reduction in the amount of household food and drink waste between 2007 and 2012, from 8.3m tonnes to 7.0m tonnes.

WRAP is currently running the LFHW ‘10 cities’ campaign across the UK. The campaign includes activities in each city including cascade training, practical cookery classes and demonstrations, a kitchen skills programme, food champion networks and memorable experiential events.

WRAP is currently brokering a new agreement, Courtauld 2025, which is expected to be launched in March and will build on this progress.