Australia currently wastes more than 7.6 million tonnes of food each year, while 70 percent of the food is still perfectly edible. This situation is estimated to cost the Australian economy over $36.6 billion per annum.

One potential solution to this problem is to design a food donation tax incentive for primary producers, manufacturers and organisations who are unable to absorb the additional costs associated with picking, packing, storing and transporting surplus or out of specification food that would be cheaper to dump. This incentive would contribute to meeting increasing demand from the food relief sector to address persisting food insecurity in Australia.

Over the last two years, KPMG has been actively involved in designing, defining and articulating the need for a National Food Donation Tax Incentive (NFDTI) as a means of working toward Australia’s food waste reduction ambitions.

A NFDTI aims to tackle Australia’s food insecurity by diverting more excess food to the food relief sector. By increasing the appetite of businesses to invest in additional time and resources in allocating stock to the food relief sector that would otherwise be written off, industries can more proactively support Australia’s ambition to halve food waste by 2030.