The trusts with some of the highest waste figures are Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Food waste at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh has increased from 15.33 tonnes in 2019/20 to 88.53 tonnes in 2021/22, so far, but the trust said it only held data for one site in 2019/20 which disposed of food waste via anaerobic digestion.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust binned 86.31 tonnes of food in 2021/22 compared to 161.87 tonnes in the previous year. It said it was developing a “Green Plan” which will include food monitoring in a bid to cut waste.

United Lincolnshire’s food waste has increased from 69.1 tonnes in 2020/21 to 78.53 in 2021/22 across its two sites. It said during 2020/21, the process for disposing and recording food waste at the trust was changed to “more accurately calculate waste”.

Many trusts said they could not provide the data because food waste was not monitored or annually recorded, and neither was its cost.

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said: “We as a trust don’t have a system in place to measure this. All waste goes to landfill.”

The 2020 Independent Review of NHS Hospital Food recommended all hospitals should install a digital meal ordering system by 2022 in a bid to cut food waste.

Of the 38 trusts that responded to our requests with data, only 15 have installed a digital system so far.

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is committed to improving the quality and choice of patient and staff food and beverage services. 

“Whilst the waste highlighted represents a large number, it isn’t out of line with other sectors and through our food programme and food standards work, we are focusing heavily on waste and net zero initiatives that will make a real difference.”