UK householders throw away one third of food they buy

One third of the food we buy ends up in the bin, a study has found. Poor meal planning was blamed for much of the estimated 6.7 million tons of food thrown away annually by British households.

Half the wasted food was edible, the government's recycling and waste agency found, suggesting that people over-shopped or made excessive portions.

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Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap), compiled the figures after a poll of almost 2,000 adults. Wrap said the waste was important because food production and transportation cause pollution and climate change. Food dumped in landfill also contributes to climate change and takes up space in the ground as the Government strives to meet new EU targets.

Wrap estimated that food accounted for 19 per cent of the total waste thrown into bins.

Cooked food was more likely than raw ingredients to be thrown away. Fruit and vegetables were the most common raw food to be discarded, followed by bread and cakes.

One in 10 householders polled admitted they wasted a lot of food while 90 per cent initially claimed to be efficient in their consumption. But further questioning revealed that everyone surveyed was wasting food.

Older people wasted the least food, perhaps reflecting their experience of shortages in the Second World War.

Householders said they were buying more food than they needed and had not properly planned their shopping. Informal meals and snacking led to a lack of planning for the use of ingredients.

Some food was thrown away because products passed their use by date while children's likes and dislikes were blamed for some of the waste.