SUPERMARKETS, councils and hospitality venues should have to disclose how much food they waste, and meet annual reduction targets, according to an Aberystwyth University academic.

Food loss and waste make up 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and globally over a third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year.

Dr Siobhan Maderson from Aberystwyth University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences is part of a team of winners of the Global Food Security programme Policy Lab competition, and her and her research colleagues’ policy proposals appear in a report and include mandatory measuring, stating and reduction of food loss and waste in supplier-retailer contracts; requiring hospitality, supermarkets and local authorities to disclose all food loss and waste and set annual mandatory reduction targets; review current rules and regulations on food waste disposal and consider repurposing food loss and waste, for example, as animal feed; supporting more efficient, less wasteful supply chains through increased public procurement directly from suppliers; and standardised definitions and terminology for classifying food loss, waste, surplus, inedible parts and destinations of food loss and waste.

The researchers also call for further investigation into infrastructure support for food loss and waste distribution hubs, and the way information about the environmental, social and economic impact of our food systems is collected.

Dr Maderson said: “If food loss and waste were represented as a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, causing 10 per cent of global emissions.

“At the moment, most of the work on decreasing food waste is focused on consumers and householders, but our research points to waste and inefficiencies throughout the food system, including on the farm, and as a result of highly restrictive contractual specifications between suppliers and retailers.

“Producing, consuming and wasting food generates impacts that cost our society, but these costs are not normally included in the price of food we buy.

“Examples of this include how the price of high-fat and high-sugar foods do not include the costs of the health service treating illnesses resulting from diets high in these foods, and the price of meat not including the costs of dealing with negative environmental impacts from livestock farming.

“Importantly, we need to look beyond individual household waste, and address loss and waste at all points in the food system.

“Unavoidable waste, as well as spoiled or damaged food is usually sent to landfill, due to current regulations on repurposing food loss and waste.”

The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to halve per capita global food waste, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030.