P-05-963 Require supermarkets to donate excess food to charity

This petition was submitted by Crosskeys My World My Home Group having collected a total of 84 signatures.

Text of Petition                      

Throughout the world, one third of all food produced annually is wasted. In the UK, that equates to about 9.5 million tonnes, which represents a huge waste of resources and unnecessary pressure on our environment. Despite this, from 2018 to 2019, Trussell Trust charity had to distribute a record 1.6 million food bank parcels in the UK. We believe that food should not be thrown away when there are people going hungry in this country.

In February 2016, France decided to take action against the food waste problem and mandated that its supermarkets donate all food nearing its sell-by-date to charity – a law that now rescues 46,000 tons of food from being thrown away every year, and has increased food bank donations in France by over 20%.

In 2019, the law was extended to encompass the institutional catering and agro-food industries. We believe that WE CAN DO THE SAME here in Wales by saving edible food and preventing our nation’s supermarkets, restaurant chains and food suppliers from sending decent food to landfill. The Welsh Government has already been working with Fare Share Cymru to redistribute the equivalent of over 8 million meals since 2011.

By adopting the solution used in France, we can take a much bigger step towards ending hunger in Wales, as well as the Welsh Government’s goal of halving food waste by 2025, which will also put us on the path to becoming Zero Waste by 2050.

Please sign this petition calling on the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to pass a law similar to the one in France to take a stand AGAINST food waste and FOR those in need.

Additional Information

For more information see the following materials: 

France’s food waste law extended to agrifood and catering businesses https://iegpolicy.agribusinessintelligence.informa.com/PL222646/Frances-food-waste-law-extended-to-agrifood-and-catering-businesses

Is France’s Groundbreaking Food-Waste Law Working? https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/frances-groundbreaking-food-waste-law-working 

French law forbids food waste by supermarkets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets

Welsh Government aims to halve food waste by 2025 https://environmentjournal.online/articles/welsh-government-aims-halve-food-waste-2025/

The Trussell trust – https://www.trusselltrust.org/

Fare Share Cymru - http://www.fareshare.cymru/en/home/

WRAP Cymru -http://www.wrapcymru.org.uk/

Status

This petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on 12/01/2021.

The Committee reiterated its support for the petition. In light of the fact that the Welsh Government is seeking powers through the UK Environment Bill which would enable it to require that surplus food is redistributed, and the fact that that Bill is currently progressing through the UK Parliament, the Committee agreed there was nothing further it could do on the issue at this time. The Committee closed the petition and thanked the petitioner.

Full details of the consideration of this petitions by the committee and related documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.

It was first considered by the Petitions Committee on 23/06/2020.

Senedd Constituency and Region

• Islwyn
• South Wales East

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