Pre-Budget submission recommends tax changes to boost food surplus recovery by hundreds of millions of meals a year  

Enough food is produced for everyone, yet globally around a third of it is wasted while millions of people struggle to feed their families*. Many countries, including France and the US, provide tax incentives to encourage businesses to redistribute their surplus food to those who need it. The UK is an outlier in advanced and emerging economies in not doing so. 

Harvard Law School, which tracks best practice around the world, recommends a change, as does The Food Redistribution Partnership UK. This new group, made up of the seven main redistribution charities and backed by anti-poverty charity Trussell, is publicly calling for a tax policy overcoming three financial considerations currently deterring businesses from consistently saving food from waste:

1. Not only does the UK tax system not offer an incentive, but it disincentivises redistribution as public subsidies reward sending surplus food to anaerobic digestion – even if it is safe for people to eat. 
2. Manufacturers send perfectly edible food to be made into animal feed to claw back margin when items fail to reach, for instance, retailer specifications for colour or size.  
3. People, packaging and process resource is required to spot, sort and store food ready for charities to collect.  

Matt Knox, Director at Newton, said: “Nobody working in a factory wants to see food being wasted, but when margins are tight, it can be too costly to forfeit financial incentives and set up new ways of working.

Armed with new data and deep understanding of supply chain processes, it is time to address this issue, helping shape a new approach to food surplus for the country – where businesses can make choices which are right for people, the planet and their own financial future.”

Working alongside our clients to understand every detail of their processes and costs, Newton sees first-hand changes that would make a meaningful difference across whole industries. We recently applied our forensic approach and detailed understanding of the end-to-end supply chain to the food surplus challenge. 

In collaboration with Felix and IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution)’s Alliance Food Sourcing, Newton has developed The Waste Equation report. It shows where in manufacturing there is the greatest potential to save more surplus and finds that even after reducing waste as much as possible, 89k tonnes, equivalent to 212 million extra meals, could be sent to community organisations each year.