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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will introduce legislative proposals to prevent supermarkets from throwing away food after it has passed its best-before date.

The Government favours a voluntary approach to the prevention of food waste, including the redistribution of surplus food to feed people. A law focused on the redistribution of surplus food from supermarkets would not resolve the barriers to redistribution. Less than 2% of overall food waste is from supermarkets, so our approach is to work with the whole supply chain through the voluntary Courtauld Commitment.

Action under the Courtauld Commitment has contributed to a 15% reduction of household food waste between 2007 and 2012 and a reduction of 7.4% in supply chain food waste between 2010 and 2012. The amount of food redistributed in the UK under the Commitment doubled between 2011 and 2013.