Britons waste food worth 10 bn pounds

LONDON: The cost of wasted food in UK households is 10 billion pounds a year, nearly two billion
pounds higher than previously estimated, according to a new research by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The research gives detailed new insights into the nature and amount of food waste thrown away in the UK and is believed to be the most comprehensive study of its kind ever carried out.

The research found that salad, fruit and bread were most commonly wasted and 60 per cent of all dumped food was untouched. It revealed that the average household throws out 420 pounds of good food a year. For the average family with children it is higher at 610 pounds.

Researchers also found that more than half the good food thrown out, worth 6 billion pounds a year, is bought and simply left unused or untouched.

Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said: "These findings are staggering in their own right, but at a time when global food shortages are in the headlines this kind of wastefulness becomes even more shocking".

For example, each day 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots, 5,500 whole chickens and 440,000 ready meals are thrown away in the UK.

The study revealed that one billion pounds worth of wasted food is still "in date" (not expired). It costs local
authorities one billion pounds a year to dispose of food waste.

Stopping the waste of good food could avoid 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents from being emitted each year, the research found.

Launching the report titled 'The Food We Waste', Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP, described the findings as "shocking".

"Food waste has a significant environmental impact. This research confirms that it is an issue for us all, whether as consumers, retailers, local or central Government," she said. "What shocked me the most was the cost of our food waste at a time of rising food bills, and generally a tighter pull on our purse strings," she added.

Ruddock said: "This is costing consumers three times over. Not only do they pay hard-earned money for food they don't eat, there is also the cost of dealing with the waste this creates.

"And there are climate change costs to all of us of growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and refrigerating food that only ends up in the bin."

WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.