Around 1.9 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK grocery supply chain every year.

That’s according to a new report by WRAP which also stated around 1.1 million tonnes could be avoided with potential savings of £1.9 billion.

It added around 270,000 tonnes may be suitable for redistribution.

If businesses take action to increase prevention of waste they could save £300 million annually, according to the ‘Quantification of food surplus’ report.

It also shows the food manufacturing and retail sectors in the country are highly efficient, with less than 5% of food surplus and waste.

WRAP believes good progress has been made in reducing food waste but a further 450,000 tonnes of food waste a year could be prevented by 2025.

Richard Swannell, Director at WRAP said: “Today’s report, which uses new and more robust methodologies, gives us the clearest indication yet of where and why food surpluses and waste occur.

“Through a combination of prevention, redistribution to people and diversion to animal feed, the grocery supply chain could, in the next 10 years, almost halve its avoidable food waste, from 2009 when we first started work in this area. This will significantly contribute to delivering the Courtauld 2025 food waste prevention target.”