Love Food Hate Waste

• What do we waste?

• Who is making the waste?

•Why is food waste bad?

•What are retailers doing?

•What we can do – tips and

advice to take home

UK food waste – how much do we waste?

* This covers part of the profit sector, and schools; ** incl. other parts of the hospitality and food service sector, other out of home food waste, and pre-factory gate food waste; household figures updated October 2011. NB data for household also includes drink waste, which is not currently available for other sectors

4.4m tonnes 1.4m tonnes 1.4m tonnes

7.2m tonnes Total food and drink waste

Avoidable Possibly Avoidable Unavoidable

Household food and drink waste in the UK

Avoidable

Prepared, served, or

cooked too much

Not used in

time

Why do we waste good food?

4.4m tonnes

All types of food and drink are thrown away

The most prominent by weight:

• Fresh vegetables and salad

• Drink

• Fresh fruit

• Bakery items – e.g. bread

What are we wasting?

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

16-24 25-34 34-44 45-54 55-64 65+

Age group

kg

pe

r p

ers

on

pe

r w

ee

k

Who throws away the most food?

What and how

much are we

throwing away

each day?

1.6m Bananas

5500 Chickens

5.1m potatoes

1.3m Yoghurts

220,000 Loaves of Bread

660,000 Eggs

1.2m Sausages

~270kg per household per

year

~5kg per household per

week

~ around 120kg per person

per year

Average household food waste

Environmental Impact

Sending food to landfill generates methane - one of the

most harmful greenhouse gases

Environmental Impact

Producing, storing and transporting food uses up a

lot of energy and resources

=17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year

If we were to stop wasting food it would be the

equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads

The effect of waste on your wallet:

UK householders are throwing away £12 billion worth of good

food and drink every year

£480 per household per year

£680 per household with children per year

Wasting less = Savings of up to £50 a month

The financial costs of food waste

It’s not all bad news...

UK household food waste has fallen by 1.1 million tonnes (13%)

since 3 years ago - from 8.3 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes, or

around a fifth of all food purchased

Avoidable household food waste has reduced by 950,000 tonnes, or

18%, from 5.3 to 4.4 million tonnes – one Wembley Stadium’s worth!

But...

As food inflation over this period has been around 20%, although the

amount we throw away is much lower (overall 4.4 mt vs 5.3 mt) it is

still costing us about the same

What are the retailers doing?

The Courtauld Commitment

= A responsibility agreement aimed at improving

resource efficiency and reducing the

environmental impact of the grocery retail

sector

The targets includes the reduction of household

food waste

There are over 50 signatories including…

BmMore th mmman

300 local authorities

in England are also

running LFHW

initiatives and have

avoided spending at

least £22m in disposal

costs.

mmds

Packaging Lightweighting

Product Development

Messages

Practical Tips and Advice

Five Key behaviours

It pays to plan

Know your dates

Savvy storage

Perfect portions

Lovely leftovers

Lovefood

hatewaste.com

Planning your meals

Save time and money:

• Saves money by using up what’s left

• Prevents buying things you already have

How?

• Know what’s in your fridge, freezer and store cupboard

• Plan your main meals for the week

• Think about potential leftover dishes

Benefits of Planning

• Can help get others involved in meal planning and

preparation

• More nutritionally balanced meals

• Less stressful and time-consuming – no need to try and

think of things to eat each day

• Enables you to cook double and freeze half

• Helps use up freezer meals

Know your dates

Checking dates saves money and lets you enjoy food at its best

• Check the dates on food

regularly and use foods with the

shortest date first

• Freeze for later foods you won’t

get round to eating in time

Savvy Storage

Storing your food correctly ensures you get the

most from the food that you buy – lasting longer

and saving you money

Using your Fridge

• Keep the fridge at a cool 1 - 5 degrees and chilled food

will stay fresh for longer

• Our most perishable (and often most expensive) food is

kept in the fridge, so keep tabs on their use-by dates

• The freezer may be the option for food we won't get

round to eating in time

Freezer Myth Buster

You can only freeze food on the day of purchase

FALSE

Food can be frozen at any point up to the

end of the “use by” date

Freezer Myth Buster

Frozen food isn’t as good as fresh

FALSE

Many foods are frozen at their freshest, e.g.

fish and vegetables, so they keep all the

goodness “locked” in

Freezer Myth Buster

You can’t freeze dairy foods .

FALSE

You can freeze hard cheese, like cheddar and

stilton, as well as milk, cream (slightly whipped)

and butter

Using your Freezer

• Food can THEORETICALLY be stored in the freezer

forever

– it only deteriorates in quality, not safety

• Some foods deteriorate quicker than others

For example, chicken lasts longer than yoghurt

• Changes in quality include: colour, texture and flavour

Top Freezer Tips

• Freeze up to one day before the 'use by' date – try

creating home-made ready meals too!

• Label your frozen food, including the date

• Thaw food in fridge. Or, if you intend to cook it as soon as

it's defrosted, you can defrost it in a microwave

• Eat within 24 hours after it’s been defrosted – heat

thoroughly

Top Storage Tips

1. Stop veg going mouldy Put a piece of kitchen paper in with the vegetables in the fridge drawer -

Any moisture goes in the paper not the vegetables

2. Freezing milk Freeze milk when you have bought too much or are off for a few days!

5 .Cheese Take Cheese out of its wrapper and put in a plastic container -

The cheese does not sweat and stays fresh much longer

3 .Stop fruit spoiling Keep an eye on your fruit, separate fruit which is ripening up more quickly than the others

4. Quick Veg Peel and chop carrots, onions, etc, bag them and freeze. When needed, just take out as

much as you need and reseal - No more soggy veg at the bottom of your veg box

Perfect portions

• Weigh or measure your food – work out the right amount

• Avoid piling up the plate with food – encourage people

to help themselves from serving dishes

• You don’t need any fancy tools – a mug,

tablespoon, spaghetti measure or simple scales

are all you need

• A Mug

Handy for measuring uncooked rice –

1 mug = 4 adults

• Tablespoon

Good for measuring out portions of rice –

5 tablespoons = 2 children

• Handfuls

Great for pasta – 2 handfuls = 1 adult

• Weighing scales

Follow the weight guide on the packet

Portions Calculator

Perfect portions guide

Lovely leftovers

• Keep for the next day

• Freeze as a ‘ready meal’

• Transform into a new meal

What do you do with your leftovers?

• What’s your go-to leftovers or

throw-together meal?

Five Key behaviours

It pays to plan

Know your dates

Savvy storage

Perfect portions

Lovely leftovers

Thanks for listening!

Any questions?

Remember to visit:

Lovefoodhatewaste.com