Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall's BBC1 investigation into food waste kicks off tonight!

UK businesses throw out over 7 million tonnes of food annually before it even gets to your plate – that’s enough to lift all the hungry people in the UK out of food poverty, and equal to about half the food wasted in the UK. Hugh's three-part series, which Feedback's Founder Tristram Stuart was a contributor and advisor to, will prove a fascinating examination into the shocking and tragic reasons for food waste around the country. The first episode will broadcast on BBC1 tonight at 9pm. Tune in to witness the hidden aspects of food waste first hand.

Also, don't forget to follow along on Twitter for a live chat and Q&A with Tristram Stuart and members of the Feedback team who will be answering all your questions about food waste. Be sure to use #wastenot.

For further insight into food waste have a look at BBC Magazine's Viewpoint: The rejected vegetables that aren’t even wonky.

Hugh's War on Waste will feature the very same parsnip farm we gleaned from earlier this year – shining a valuable light on the deplorable practices of retailers in rejecting produce for being the wrong size and shape, as well as cancelling orders. When we discovered that a gut-wrenching 250 tonnes of parsnips were being wasted on a farm in Norfolk, we couldn’t believe our ears. That’s 160 Luton vans full of delicious parsnips, or over 3 MILLION PORTIONS.

Feedback’s Gleaning Network kicked into action to save as much of the farmer's 250 tonnes of soon-to-be-wasted parsnips for food poverty charity FareShare. We mobilised volunteers from across the region to donate their time to help glean this crop. Across three gleaning days, we saved a colossal 20 tonnes of delicious parsnips from going to waste – that’s roughly 250,000 portions. Parsnips flooded the nation’s charities from Edinburgh to Brighton, from Bristol to Kent, in abundance. Check out the great parsnip glean and the return of the parsnip for some fabulous photos from these gleaning days.
 

All you early birds may have heard Tristram Stuart on BBC Radio 4 this morning discussing cosmetic standards and supermarket unfair trading practices.

Supermarkets dictate strict product specifications to farmers meaning that they’ll only buy fruits and vegetables that fit demanding size, shape and colour specifications – regardless of the nutrition, taste and value of the food. On top of this, last minute order cancellations by supermarkets and the businesses they are supplied by leave many farmers without any compensation and no market to sell their food to.

Listen to the broadcast here (the relevant section starts at 6.52mins).

We have been highlighting this problem in our Stop Dumping Campaign. More than a million people have signed our petition to stop this - add your voice to the growing movement here, watch and share the video here.

In a true feast for the eyes, ears & belly, Feeding the 5000, the hotly anticipated surplus food celebration, took Brighton by storm last Thursday. Despite the rain, community groups and locals came out to enjoy 5000 fabulous free lunches all made from food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Leading the charge against food waste in the UK, Feeding the 5000 events shed light on global and regional food waste issues by demonstrating fun and tasty solutions. For example, on Thursday imperfect mangoes were turned into delicious smoothies– all expertly created by members of the public on a bicycle powered blender!

With help and guidance from Feedback, the fantastic day was organised by local organisations including: Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, Brighton & Hove City Council, FareShare Brighton, Love Activists Brighton, Real Junk Food Project, Food Waste Collective, Freegle, University of Brighton, and University of Sussex Students' Union.

Check out more photos and media coverage from the day. 

Sign the Petition

Stop the Rot is an exciting new campaign from our friends This is Rubbish. It challenges supermarkets to be transparent about the massive 7 million tonnes of food waste in their supply chain and commit to ambitious targets to reduce this food waste by 30% by 2025.

This Is Rubbish, a sister organisation that grew up out of Feedback's very first Feeding the 5000 event in London in 2009, aims to communicate the preventable scale of food waste in the UK. Feedback is proud to endorse their new Stop the Rot campaign, together with many others including Rosie Boycott, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Friends of the Earth, Kerry McCarthy MP, Thomasina Miers and many more.

Please sign and share their new petition far and wide! #Stoptherot

Best wishes from the frontlines of the fight against food waste, 

Niki and the Feedback Team