Love Food Hate Waste

Why do we waste all this food?

The two main reasons why food is wasted are:

1. We cook or prepare too much food
2. We let it go past its "use by" date or we forget it and it goes off

The top 5 wasted foods are fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, bread and other bakery products, dairy produce and rice & pasta.

We throw away a huge amount of perfectly good food. Every day in the UK we throw away:

• 7 million slices of bread
• 5.1 million whole potatoes
• 4.4 million whole apples
• 2.8 million tomatoes
• 1.3 million unopened yogurts
• 1 million slices of ham

Of all the avoidable food waste, half is thrown away because it is not used in time (e.g. before the food date expires) or is no longer wanted. In addition one in seven of these items are thrown in the bin still in their packaging.

That must be such a waste of money?

That’s right the financial implications are huge; in Wales we buy, and then waste, around £600 million every year on food and drink that could have been eaten.

That's an average of £420 per household per year and for households with children it’s even more at around £610 a year!!

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