Buying lunch costs British workers over £5bn a year
A survey* commissioned for Love Food Hate Waste suggests that British workers are shelling out £5.5bn on shop-bought lunches each year, while they leave almost the same value of perfectly good lunch foods at home to go off.
Ham, bread, cheese, cold meats and other typical sandwich and lunchbox foods such as fruit, crisps and yogurts are forgotten and eventually binned, to the tune of £5.06bn every year**, while we buy sandwiches and take-aways at lunchtime.
2.1 million tonnes of food fit for a packed lunch is heading to landfill each year, including:
- £821m worth of breads (530,000 tonnes)
- £94m worth of sliced meats (23,000 tonnes)
But the nation seems split on packed lunches. The research shows that nearly a third of workers (28%) say they never bring in lunch from home, while another third (33%) say they take lunch to work every working week day.
“There’s obviously a move by some of us to save money and bring lunch to work and this new survey shows that some of us could be saving up as much as £120 each to spend at Christmas, if we start free lunching now,” says Julia Falcon from Love Food Hate Waste. “Most of the time there’s a packed lunch waiting in the fridge if only we noticed it and there really is such a thing as a ‘free lunch’ when you take last night’s leftovers with you.”
The research also shows that although over 80% of British workers have access to a microwave and 86% to a fridge at the office, only one in five uses up leftovers for lunch.
“As the days start to get colder a piping hot lunch made from last night’s leftovers could be a welcome option for busy workers,” says Ms Falcon.
37% of the people surveyed said they would use their leftovers for lunch if they had more ideas about how to use them. http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/ is featuring ‘Free Lunching’ in the lead up to Christmas, with new, fuss free ideas on making up great packed lunches from items already in the fridge. The website also includes helpful advice on using leftovers and information on how to store foods safely.
Top four ‘free lunching’ benefits:
- Save money (money not spent on lunch – on average £3.33 - can go straight to Christmas presents)
- Cut waste (use up food you might not have eaten, and bring in your own reusable packaging)
- Having exactly, and only, what you want (make sure you have just the right amount)
- Knowing exactly what is in your food (because you made it!)
The Food We Waste report showed that in the UK we buy and then throw away £10bn worth of food which could have been eaten.
For more tips and inspiration on how to reduce food waste please visit http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Important free lunching advice:
- Transportation – make sure whatever you take for lunch is well sealed in airtight containers. A flask is the best option for soup, and take-away plastic boxes with lids are perfect for dry foods.
- Storage – if you have a fridge at work, most things, especially anything containing meat, fish or dairy should be popped in the fridge as soon as possible. Otherwise use a cool bag with ice pack inside.
- Re-heating – leftovers must be piping hot before eating. Be careful not to re-heat more than once.
- Storage times – cooked leftovers should be eaten within two days.
Editor's notes:
* Research information:
- All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4,020 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 19th - 26th August 2008. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
- The figure for lunches bought in GB (£5.5 billion) applies to those working 30+ hours per week outside the home. This is a population of ~22 million, calculated by multiplying the adult population (18+) in GB (46.5 million; mid-2007 ONS statistics) by the 48% claiming to work 30+ hours per week outside the home (from current LFHW research)
- Respondents to the survey who claimed to work 30+ hours per week outside the home were asked further questions on their lunchtime spending and eating habits. This group claimed to purchase an average of 1.57 lunches per week. Furthermore, of those who paid for their lunches, an average of £3.33 was spent per lunch, it was claimed. Assuming 47 working weeks per year, this leads to £5.5 billion spent on lunches
- £120 saving is calculated by multiplying the daily saving of £3.33 by the 37 days between this release being issued and the 24th December, inclusive of the 4th November and 24th December
- ‘Shop-bought’ refers to food purchased outside of the home on the day of consumption, i.e. staff cafeteria, sandwich stores or take-away outlets etc.
** The Food We Waste Report, published by WRAP earlier this year, explains in detail the quantities, condition and value of foods we throw away at home. This report can be found at http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/The_Food_We_Waste_v2__2_.b7644d2a.5635.pdf
- Below are some examples of the cost of lunching foods we throw out each year:
| apples | - £298m worth |
| yoghurts | - £169m |
| cheese | - £243m |
| fresh lettuce | - £28m |
| sliced meats | - £94m |
| coleslaw and humous | - £79m |
| breads including pitta, naan and unsliced | - £821m |
The figures above exclude data on foods thrown away that are NOT suitable for preparing a lunch-box, for example raw meats, opened yoghurts, toasted bread etc. Comprehensive data on all foods can be found in The Food We Waste report.
Key facts from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign:
- In the UK we are throwing away one third of the food we buy. That’s like one in three bagfuls of food shopping going straight in the bin.
- We throw away 6.7 tonnes of food each year in the UK, when most of this food could have been eaten. (It’s not just peelings and bones –it’s good food).That’s equivalent to filling Wembley Stadium with food waste 8 times over!
- In terms of environmental impact – producing, storing and getting the food to our homes uses a lot of energy. If we stopped wasting all this food, it would save the equivalent of at least 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s like taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads.
- Most of this food reaches landfill sites where it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- High economic cost – at least £10 billion worth of food that could have been eaten is thrown out every year. UK householders are throwing out on average more than £400/year.
- We throw food out for two main reasons: 1) we cook or prepare too much, costing us around £4 billion per year; 2) and we let food go off, either completely untouched, or opened/ started but not finished, costing £6 billion per year.
Generic Footnote:
- For more information on the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, visit: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
- Key findings of our recent research on the nature, scale and causes of household food waste can be found at: http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail/food_waste/index.html
- WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
- Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on http://www.wrap.org.uk/
