New WRAP Research Reveals Extent of Food Waste in the UK
New research by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has revealed that households in the UK throw away 6.7m tonnes of food every year, accounting for around a third of all of the food we buy. About half of this is edible food, with rest comprising of peelings, meat bones etc.
Waste food accounts for almost a fifth (19%) of our domestic waste. WRAP’s research found that cooked food is more likely to be thrown away than raw ingredients, and that fresh fruit and vegetables are the most common uncooked food to be discarded followed by bread and cakes.
The main reasons given in the survey were:
- Buying more than we need – unplanned shopping
- Storage – fridges are often too warm
- Not eating short shelf life items before their use by date
- Children’s food likes and dislikes
- Informal or unplanned eating patterns leading to food bought that is not needed.
Jennie Price, Chief Executive of WRAP, said: “Our research has found that about half of the food we throw away could have been eaten. There is a real opportunity here for us to both save some money and help the environment by making a few small changes. The striking point which emerges from the research is that only 10% of those asked realised they were throwing much food away.”
This is both an important consumer and environmental issue as around 20% of our climate change emissions are related to the production, processing, transportation and storage of food.
Editor's notes:
- A summary of this comprehensive research by WRAP is due to be published March 31st 2007 and can be found at www.wrap.org.uk
- WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
- Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in 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 at www.wrap.org.uk
