The Federal Government has unveiled a new $4 million body with the sole focus of reducing Australia’s food waste – a critical step towards its target of halving the millions of tonnes of food that ends up in landfill every year by 2030.
According to Environment Minister Sussan Ley, the newly formed Stop Food Waste Australia will bring together experts in supply chain management, food waste NGOs and all tiers of government to tackle the problem.
“To put it in perspective, every year we throw away more than 7.3 million tonnes of food at a cost to the economy of more than $20 billion and on average, households are throwing away up to $3800 of food a year,” she said.
“Stop Food Waste Australia will work with industry to create real, practical changes that help everyday Australians reduce their food waste like adding clearer instructions on packaging for storage or creating consistent package design with easier to find use by or packed by dates.”
Assistant Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Minister Trevor Evans added that reducing food waste will help businesses bottom lines while protecting natural resources.
“When we waste food, we also waste the precious resources that are used to make it: land, water and the work of our farmers plus the energy used to process, package and transport the food from farm to fork,” he said.
“Stop Food Waste Australia will support change in all parts of the food supply chain, from farmers and food manufacturers through to retailers and households.”
Stop Food Waste Australia will comprise of the following members:
• ACT NoWaste
• Australian Food & Grocery Council
• Australian Food Cold Chain Council
• Australian Institute of Packaging
• Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
• Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre
• Foodbank
• Green Industries South Australia
• National Farmers Federation
• National Retail Association
• New South Wales Environment Protection Authority
• OzHarvest
• Queensland Department of Environment and Science
• SecondBite
• Sustainability Victoria
• Waste and Resource Action Programme (United Kingdom)
• Western Australia Department of Water and Environmental Regulation
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- Cold-chain food waste costs Australia $4B
- FIAL releases roadmap to halve food waste by 2030