Preventing Food Waste: Case Studies of Japan and the United Kingdom

This report contains case studies of food loss and waste policy practices in Japan and the United Kingdom. The Japanese case study examines the goals, measurements, achievements and future challenges of the country’s food loss and waste policies. The Japanese government has implemented policies to suppress and recycle food loss and waste since 2000 under its Food Recycling Law. The control of food waste generation is based on a specific target for each industry group, in order to address differences in the scope for loss and waste reduction across sectors. While food waste in the food industry has been reduced, the waste at consumer stage has shown no change in recent years, highlighting outstanding challenges at the consumer stage. Preventing food waste has been a priority for Governments in the United Kingdom for over a decade, and a range of mechanisms have been put in place to deliver this within households, hospitality and food service, food manufacture, retail and wholesale sectors. The UK case study outlines the policy context within which food waste prevention sits, explains how food waste is defined in the United Kingdom, provides detail on the level and types of food waste across different sectors, and describes the interventions adopted and their impacts. Between 2007 and 2012 household food waste reduced by 15%, despite a 4% increase in household numbers, and food waste at manufacture and retail fell by 10% between 2009 and 2012. There is significant potential to reduce food waste further, however it is likely that this will become increasingly challenging.