Food waste tsar to target 250 million meals thrown away each year

Ben Elliot will manage government’s £15m food waste fund

‘Food waste is an economic, environmental and moral scandal,’ Michael Gove says (Getty)

The environment secretary has appointed a food waste champion to cut down Britain’s 10.2 million pounds of waste – the equivalent of 250 million meals each year.

Michael Gove picked Ben Elliot to work towards the government’s plan of eliminating food waste to send to landfill by 2030.

Mr Elliot, who co-founded the lifestyle group Quintessentially, will also work with businesses to encourage them to tackle food waste.

“Food waste is an economic, environmental and moral scandal,” Mr Gove said. “We must end it.”

Mr Elliot’s first task will be to manage the government’s £15m food waste fund, which aims to redistribute surplus food – which would otherwise have been wasted – to those in need, Mr Gove said.

Mr Elliot said: “Whilst families all over the country struggle to put food on the table and children still go to school each day with empty stomachs, there continues to be an unforgivable amount of food waste which is both morally deplorable and largely avoidable.

“As a nation, we need to stop this excessive waste and ensure that surplus food finds its way to people in our society who need it most, and not let it get thrown away and go to landfill.”

Mr Elliot has been appointed to the unpaid role for one year.

He has previously worked with The Felix Project, which collects food that would be wasted and delivers it to charities.

Last year, The Independent’s Help a Hungry Child campaign raised more than £1m in donations for the charity.