Food surplus and waste in primary production amounting to 3.6 million tonnes is costing the UK £1.2 billion every year, according to new research.

These new insights into the scale of surplus and food waste on UK farms will help drive forward work on their root causes at a key stage in the supply chain, and help more food reach its intended market.

Research which undertook an extensive literature review, has helped to generate the most reliable estimate to date for total farm food surplus and food waste; assessing the core categories of vegetables, fruit, cereal crops, dairy and livestock.

The scope of the review covers the moment when a food crop is ready to harvest, or an animal to be slaughtered, and assesses surplus and waste arising from processes such as grading, packing and washing – as well as customer rejections.

It estimates that total UK food surplus and waste in primary production stands at 3.6 million tonnes per annum, or 7.2% of production. The market value of this food is in the region of £1.2 billion.

It is estimateed that the scale of the situation based on 2017 data, and the organisation is now working to acquire more data directly from producers to refine its findings and help direct future action.

It  has also produced a new online resource for farmers and growers, the Food Surplus Network provides access to a broad range of markets and outlets for surplus food.

It is estimated that food waste accounts for 1.6 million tonnes of the total figure, or around 3% of production with a market value of around £650 million.

Sugar beet, potatoes and carrots made up more than half of the overall waste by weight, with the top ten products accounting for 80% of the total weight.

When grouped by product type, horticultural crops make up 54% of the total, cereals 30%, livestock 8% and milk 8%.

A significant factor is also the percentage of a crop that becomes waste. For example, of the top twenty foods listed milk has the highest total production by weight at nearly 15 million tonnes.

In this case, 116,000 tonnes of milk waste arose representing 0.8% of total production. While for lettuces, the percentage of waste is nearly 25% of total production (104,000 tonnes).

Surplus food comprises those products that are not sold for human consumption as intended, but which are instead used as livestock feed, redistributed to charities, or may become bio-based materials such as colorants.

The amount of surplus food is estimated to be an additional 2.0 million tonnes per annum, or 4% of production with a market value of more than £500 million.

“This is the most detailed study of food surplus and waste in primary production undertaken for the UK, and a key finding has been the range of waste across all food categories”.

“This tells us is there is huge potential to reduce the amount of surplus and waste by promoting best practice, and that’s wher our work is now focussed.

“We want to increase redistribution of surplus food as has happened across the retail sector, and I am pleased this will now be much easier through the Food Surplus Network.

“Given the scale and challenge of gathering data from the sector, we are calling on businesses and researchers to share their insights with us through our collaborative data sharing platform.

“This provides a simple way to share data, which can be combined into a living evidence base. This will help bring more clarity to an issue that is happening around the globe.”