The average UK household throws away the equivalent of six meals every week, costing the nation £12.5bn a year, according to new figures released by Wrap today.
The waste, which works out at £60 a month for the average family, includes the equivalent of 24 million slices of bread being thrown away every day, while each year the equivalent of 86 million chickens are discarded.
Wrap’s CEO Dr Liz Goodwin today called for a “major combined effort” with retailers, brands, governments and consumers to reduce the 4.2 million tonnes of household food that could have been eaten from going into the bin.
Overall, 7 million tonnes of food was wasted in 2012, including ‘avoidable’ wastage and ‘unavoidable’ wastage, which includes inedible parts of food such as orange peel and onion skin.
“Working together in a concerted effort, rolling out initiatives more widely, spreading best practice… I believe through that we can all make a major impact. I know there is real commitment to tackle this issue. Every day I see innovations and initiatives by governments local and national, by communities, by business, by think tanks, by individuals,” Goodwin said.
Wrap revealed almost half of this food goes straight from fridges or cupboards to the bin without even making it onto the plate. However, research by Wrap shows the UK could halve avoidable food waste by 2025 compared to when it started work on this in 2007.
The figures show household food waste has fallen by 15% since a landmark report in 2007, which showed a “staggering” figure of 8.3 million tonnes of food being thrown away, or 22% of all purchases.
Last month Tesco announced a major crackdown on food waste, including measures to reduce pack sizes, after admitting it had recorded 30,000 tonnes of food waste in the first six months of 2013, including 68% of salad sold in bags, more than a third of which was thrown out by customers.
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