Food waste – is it a big meal?

Last year 88 million tonnes of food was wasted in the EU; the majority of this wastage came from major retailers with product that had gone out of date. In the third quarter of 2018, the Trussel Trust, the UK’s largest food bank network announced an annual 13 percent increase in service users compared to the same period in 2017. Statistics like these have created a spate of negative press for food outlets. Now, Michael Gove has announced a pilot scheme to reduce this wastage and the EC (European Commission) is issuing new guidelines on food donation to encourage retailers to pass food that is about to be disposed of onto re-distribution networks.

Osborne Clarke's Katie Vickery discusses what this will mean for consumers and the legal implications this will have on the food and grocery sector.