Waste not, want not
Waste not, want not
With the great Christmas throw out in full swing it is clear that not just the tree, cards and wrapping paper are in the bin. Joining the turkey carcass will be mountains of uneaten or even unopened food. But food waste is mostly the fault of supermarket policies claims a new book.
 | According to Tristram Stuart, author of Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, up to 20 million tonnes of food is wasted in Britain every year, costing each household almost £480 annually. He claims that if all the food wasted in the UK each day were collected it would provide a decent lunch for 60 million people. Add in North America and the rest of Europe and all 1 billion of the world's under nourished would be fed. |
He lays much of the blame at the door of supermarkets, citing farmers who are forced to throw away misshapen or irregular sized fruit and vegetables because they are not ‘cosmetically' acceptable. Also behind many supermarkets are bins full of perfectly edible foods close to expiry which must make way for new stock.
But consumers are not blameless either, throwing out £12 billion of food each year, including £280 million of milk and almost 100,000 tonnes of poultry.
However it's not all bad news. Several companies are improving their waste management systems. Marks & Spencer cut food waste by 20 per cent, simply by reducing the price of close to expiry products on its shelves. A practice followed by other retailers, such as Waitrose, for some time.
