Chilled Food Association calls for clearer classification of food waste

Related tags Chilled food association Resources action programme Meal Restaurant

The Chilled Food Association (CFA) has criticised the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) for persistently linking...

The Chilled Food Association (CFA) has criticised the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) for persistently linking chilled ready meal manufacturers and take-away restaurants when it comes to food waste.

In its The food we waste report, published last summer, WRAP set out domestic food waste, divided up into different categories.

It claimed 440,000 'ready-made meals' were thrown away by consumers, although the CFA claims much of that figure refers to take-aways. It has been pressing WRAP to change its definition ever since, because it believes it to be damaging ready meal processors' reputations. But the organisation has not done so, despite meeting with the CFA in autumn 2008.

"It still talked about waste using the same terminology and figures," said CFA secretary general Kaarin Goodburn. "It didn't understand the impact this would have on the sector."

Andrew Parry, programme manager for household food waste production at WRAP, said the organisation's analysis of domestic waste often made it hard to distinguish between take-aways and store-bought products.

As far as it could tell, the split between store-bought ready meal waste and take-aways was roughly equal. "We reckon this amounts to 215,000t, of which 81,000t are store bought, 88,000t are take-aways and the remainder is impossible to determine," Parry said. "Perhaps the terms store-bought and take-away may be the best ones to use."