Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the amount of surplus food produced in the UK; what the (a) sources and (b) destinations were of those surplus stocks; and how that estimate was calculated.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that 43,000 tonnes of surplus food was redistributed in 2017. Retail (41%) and manufacturing (54%) provided the bulk of the surplus food redistributed with the remainder mainly from the hospitality and food service sector.

Charitable organisations redistributed 21,000 tonnes while commercial operators dealt with around 22,000 tonnes.

Data was collected by WRAP in an annual survey of major organisations whose primary business is redistribution of surplus food.

In October 2018, the Secretary of State announced a £15m pilot fund for 2019/20 to support the further redistribution of surplus food and reduce food waste.

We are looking to make announcements on the successful applicants to the first tranche of funding shortly and announce new opportunities for funding in the next few months.