The Bulletin
T EC H NICA L & L E G I S L AT I V E
From head of technical, Denise Rion
update
This article has kindly been provided by our colleagues at FareShare, the UK’s largest redistribution charity. If you want to find out more about how you can play your part in the fight against hunger and food waste, including the FareShare Surplus with Purpose Fund, then read on…
Could your frozen surplus food be a lifeline for charities? Globally, one third of the food we produce is wasted. When you consider the resources involved in growing, preparing and transporting food, that figure is even more shocking. But, with a growing ‘zero waste’ movement, and increasing pressure from consumers, food businesses are pledging to take action to tackle the issue – redistributing their edible surplus to frontline charities where it can do the most good. FareShare is the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, taking in-date surplus from growers, packers, manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and the hospitality sector and redistributing it through a network of 11,000 frontline organisations, such as homeless hostels, school breakfast clubs, food banks and hospices. Jo Dyson, head of food at FareShare, says: “In five years the amount of food we’ve delivered to charities has tripled, which indicates that tackling food waste in the most socially responsible way has become an increasing priority for businesses.”
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But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Jo explains: “WRAP estimates that, within the food industry, there’s 220,000 tonnes of edible surplus, 100,000 tonnes of which is easily accessible. Right now we’re only accessing 8% of the UK’s available surplus, so there’s a lot more we can do.” FareShare works with more than 500 companies across the supply chain – from farmers to hauliers, hospitality chains to supermarkets, and big brands to small independent producers. “Surplus might be inevitable, but food waste doesn’t have to be,” says Jo. "We have 22 regional centres across the UK, 15 of which have walk-in freezers – which puts us at an advantage because we can very quickly and safely transport large volumes of surplus food into our network. “Frozen food in particular is highly valued by our member charities. It enables them to provide the people and families they support with a wider range of nutritious food and helps the charities reduce waste within their own operations, as it means they are able to cook only what they need.
