Figures released by UK food redistribution charity FareShare have revealed that suppliers are now redistributing almost 30% more surplus in-date meat to charities than in 2015/16.
The rise comes as in the last year manufacturers including 2 Sisters Food Group, Pork Farms, Moy Park and Peperami started to allocate their surplus meat products to charities, joining Kerry Foods, Facenda Foods Limited and ABP Food Group.
According to FareShare, over 1,137 tonnes of meat (including fish) were delivered to charities and community groups this year, compared to 891 tonnes in the last financial year.
FareShare’s director of Food, Mark Varney, commented: “It’s clear that the industry is realising that there’s a business benefit to tackling food waste.
“A recent report showed that for every £1 invested in food waste reduction, an average of £14 is saved.”
He added: “UK charities who get good quality surplus food from FareShare save an average of £7,600 a year – money that they can plough back into their existing services.
“There’s a constant demand for meat.”
Phil Cater, demand planning lead GB at Kerry Foods, which has supplied over 250,000 meals worth of surplus meat to the charity, said: “Reducing waste across our business is an example of living our Better Together value and we constantly challenge ourselves to achieve more.”
FareShare receives good quality, in-date surplus food from retailers, manufacturers and producers and redistributes it to more than 6,723 frontline charities and community groups, feeding nearly half a million people every week.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
