EVERY year there is a nominal date in the calendar on which Britain would run out of food if it had to be entirely self sufficient.

It is calculated as a measure of the country’s food security by experts worried about the decline in our ability to feed ourselves.

The date next year has been put at August 7. The National Farmers’ Union has warned that with the prospect of a no-deal Brexit being talked up recently, food security needs to be at the top of the political agenda and has used the date to drive home its point.

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has said Britain would have “adequate food supplies” after Brexit, but a study published today suggests a free trade deal might not as crucial as some think to the country’s food security.

Researchers looking at food waste across Europe found that in the UK, up to 4.5 million tonnes of fresh produce is discarded every year because it does not meet supermarkets’ and consumers’ ideas of how “perfect” fruit and vegetables should look.

The obvious point made by the academics who authored the study is that this is ludicrous at a time when ten per cent of the world’s population is chronically hungry.

But it is also worth pointing out that stopping this ridiculous waste would go some way to addressing concerns about the UK’s food security, as well as making the food supply chain more sustainable.

The supermarkets which largely control the market must stop this waste as a matter of absolute urgency.