Sodexo food waste experts advise Lords committee

Experts from Sodexo, the world’s largest services company, advised the government on the European Union’s contribution to food waste prevention in the Houses of Parliament yesterday (6 November).

Head of waste management Claire Atkins Morris and environmental manager Paul Bracegirdle appeared before a House of Lords sub-committee to give the Sodexo perspective on EU plans to introduce a target to reduce food waste by 50 per cent across member states by 2020.

Sodexo serves over one million meals a day across 2,300 sites in the UK and Ireland, and operates in 80 countries around the world. Claire and Paul were asked their opinion of the proposed EU target, definitions of food waste and how food waste is monitored.

Sodexo is a founding signatory of the UK Hospitality and Foodservice Agreement, which was launched by the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) in June 2012 on behalf of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The agreement aims to cut food and packaging waste by five per cent – or approximately 100 million meals – by 2015 and increase the rate of food and packaging waste recycled, sent to anaerobic digestion or composted to 70 per cent.

Sodexo also makes a commitment to reducing food waste through its global sustainability strategy the Better Tomorrow Plan. Thus far, Sodexo is the only foodservice company to provide expert witnesses to the House of Lords Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy sub-committee, which is taking evidence from industry bodies and retail organisations before feeding back their findings to Brussels in March 2014.