Resources

WRAP works with governments, businesses and citizens to create a world in which resources are used sustainably. Read our April 2020-21 annual review to learn more about our mission to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy.

In June 2020, 40 key stakeholders from across the UK meat production and supply chain came together, facilitated by WRAP's Courtauld Commitment, to pledge to make the UK meat industry one of the most efficient and sustainable in the world. This summary highlights the areas of significant progress made and the areas that require greater focus.

Exploring how farmers can be supported to collaborate in measuring food surplus and waste and identifying production efficiencies.

Shaping a sustainable recovery.

The Courtauld Commitment Annual Report sets out the progress that has been made by the food and drink sector this year towards achieving the voluntary agreement’s targets and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In yet another turbulent year for food and drink, the sector has continued  to deliver meaningful action on climate change, driving collaboration across the entire food system to measure and reduce food waste, greenhouse gas emissions and water stress.

Redistributing surplus food from farms can help those who do not have enough to feed themselves, reduce food waste and ensure that the hard effort of farmers and growers does not go to waste.

This best practice guide identifies how a more consistent approach can be taken to the redistribution of surplus retailer own-label food from supply chain businesses. This will result in more food being made available for redistribution, in a timely manner.

Redistributing surplus food is one of the best ways that businesses can help to reduce the amount of food that ends up as waste. WRAP has previously reported on progress on increasing surplus food redistribution between 2015 and 2018, and this report provides additional data for 2019 and 2020.

Defining the actions the hospitality and food service sector will take to help to deliver the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap. New update coming Spring 2024. 

The purpose of the Framework for Effective Redistribution Partnerships (‘the Redistribution Framework’) is to help organisations increase volumes of food redistributed in the UK by:

1) Providing a structured and efficient approach to the creation and operation of partnerships which enable successful food redistribution, taking into account the needs and ways of working of both the food surplus provider and a recipient organisation;

2) Supporting more consistent exchange of key information; and 3) Stimulating a more structured approach to the identification of surpluses suitable for redistribution.

The Redistribution Framework is intended to help individual providers and recipients to adopt or adapt their own processes and choices for handling surplus, to fit with existing ways of working, while making it easier for multiple organisations to work with each other.

Increasing the amount of food surplus that is redistributed from food businesses is a key strand of the strategy to reduce food waste, to deliver the Courtauld Commitment 2025 (Courtauld 2025) target and ultimately the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. There has been a significant increase in activities aimed at achieving this, with good progress being made over recent years (Surplus Food Redistribution in the UK; 2015 to 2017).

Prepared by the World Bank and WRAP on behalf of the government of Mexico, the Conceptual Framework brings together the data on food loss and waste in Mexico for the first time, painting a compelling picture of the current situation an creating a framework for action.