Britain's food waste shame

Britain has come in a miserable fifteenth place in Europe for  redistributing food waste from supermarkets - we managed to redistribute just 5,904 tonnes in 2013,  0r  9.2 tonnes per 100,000 people - 9th place Hungary managed to redistribute 4,939 tonnes - or 49.8 tonnes per 100,000 citizens - and top of the table Spain 118,638 tonnes - or a whopping 253.9 tones per 100,000 people.Why is the UK doing so badly? There has been recently disquiet voiced over the subsidies given to anaerobic digestion plants in the UK - meaning perfectly edible food is being sent to be converted into energy   And Frank Field, the former MP and labour welfare minister, has called on UK supermarkets and the UK government to work together to ensure surplus food gets to needy humans:  other EU countries use EU subsidies to subsidise the redistribution of food to poor families, and Mark Varney, FareShare's director of food, said that Britain had only drawn 10% of the £30 million of EU monies available - and also called on the government to allow companies to claim tax relief on food they donate saying "the reason the UK food industry does not redistribute more of the 300,000 - 400,000 tonnes of surplus food each year is that people do not like throwing good money after bad. It costs a business money to make sure that we, or another charity , get that food." Fareshare hereSustainable Food Trust here