New Feedback report exposes businesses ‘dumping’ food waste on food aid charities

Food waste is a huge problem in the UK, with a quarter of all food produced being wasted each year. Meanwhile, 13.6% of households experienced food insecurity in June 2024 and over 3 million people used food aid organisations in the last year.

Feedback conducted a survey in autumn of 2024 to understand the experiences of staff and volunteers working in food aid organisations receiving redistributed surplus food. The 53 respondents were from food banks, pantries, community hubs and other organisations providing food aid. Issues with surplus food reported ranged from rotten, out-of-date food to bizarre and unusable items being passed on by food businesses, allowing these businesses to avoid the cost and responsibility for disposing of food waste, placing these burdens on a largely voluntary and overstretched workforce. 

Key findings from the survey include

• 91% of food aid workers are forced to discard food donations from businesses, due to them being damaged or inedible. 

• 85% of food aid workers feel frustrated, angry, or sad when receiving unusable food donations. 

• 98% of food aid workers believe that the government must do more to stop food waste from arising in the first place.

• 84% said it was essential that larger businesses should be legally required to report their food waste.

• 71% said it was essential that the government should introduce legally binding targets to reduce food waste.

Feedback’s key recommendations for a fairer, more effective approach include

• Implement a whistleblowing system to report poor-quality donations 

• Mandatory reporting of food waste for large and medium businesses 

• Commit to a national target to halve food waste by 2030 from farm to fork

• Bring forward a levy which retailers must pay in relation to the food wasted in their supply chains 

• Establish a Real Living Wage 

• Provide Universal free school meals

The report makes it clear that food waste is not the answer to food poverty, and the government must tackle the root causes of food waste while ensuring everyone can access good food. 

Read the full report now