"These dramatic figures show that although we are all keen to do the right thing buying plenty of fruit and vegetables, the benefit is clearly being lost when food gets thrown out untouched"
Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive
Banbury, Oxon, England: A staggering 4.4 million whole apples are being thrown away untouched every day in the UK, according to the latest figures from Love Food Hate Waste, WRAP’s (Waste & Resources Action Programme) campaign to tackle food being wasted in UK homes.
The figures show that in total we bin nearly £3 billion worth of perfectly good fruit and vegetables each year, a massive waste of food resources.
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign’s figures confirm that a third of the food we buy, amounting to 6.7 million tonnes, gets discarded from UK households annually. Fruit and vegetables are a major component at around 40% of this. The top five fruit & vegetables which get binned without even being touched are apples (4.4 million or 179,000 tonnes pa), potatoes(5.1m or 177,000 tonnes pa), bananas (1.6m or 77,000 tonnes pa), tomatoes (2.8m or 46,000 tonnes pa) and oranges (1.2m or 45,000 tonnes).
Producing, storing and getting the food to UK homes consumes much energy through transport, packaging etc. If we could stop the wastage of all this food, it would save the equivalent of at least 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This would be equivalent to taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads, according to WRAP.
WRAP has been leading a team including Sainsbury’s, to find out why so much fresh produce is wasted and investigating solutions. The study findings show essentially that much is discarded because it simply goes off, and storage conditions at home bear much blame.
Research showed that more than half households leave fruit at room temperature, probably in a fruit bowl on the sideboard, rather than keeping it cool, but the new research shows that by simply storing most fresh fruit and vegetables inside the fridge, these foods stay fresh for up to 2 weeks longer.
Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive commented:
“These dramatic figures show that although we are all keen to do the right thing buying plenty of fruit and vegetables, the benefit is clearly being lost when food gets thrown out untouched. By following some simple tips and advice which can be found on our website, we can all be saving money as well as helping the environment.”
As part of the research Sainsbury’s is trialling new storage guidance to customers both in store and on its website.
Sainsbury says that shelf labels will be seen in the fruit and vegetable aisles from today, reading ‘refrigerate for freshness’. However this shelf label advice will not apply to bananas and pineapples, which are the only fruits not suitable for refrigeration.
The website www.sainsburys.co.uk will provide storage advice for all the most popular fruit and vegetables, together with recipes tailored to fruit and veg that might be past their peak.
From April the Sainsbury’s Try Something New magazine will feature a new section, “3 ways with…” offering recipe suggestions for fruit and veg in season.
Sainsbury’s head of brand policy and sustainability, Alison Austin, said:
“In light of this research Sainsbury’s are advising shoppers to store their loose fruit and vegetables in the fridge. We are tackling the task in two ways: showing shoppers how to keep their food fresh for longer, and then inspiring them to use it in lots of different ways. The benefits of keeping most fruit and veg in the fridge include higher nutrient levels and a better flavour than if they’re left at room temperature”.
WRAP says that research findings will be shared with all retailers.
Further information
The Love Food Hate Waste campaign is providing detailed tips on storing different types of fruit and vegetables, to keep them at their freshest for longer, at http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/, along with a new range quick and easy recipes so we can enjoy these foods, not waste them.
Though the results of research are not due to be published until late Spring / Summer, key findings of WRAP's 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 works in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), and 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
www.wrap.org.uk .