Leading Articles

Waste Not

We are morally diminished by our wastefulness of foodAugust 12 2015

It is rare to find an issue attended with so little moral ambiguity as Britain’s collective

wastefulness with food. According to a report published by researchers at the European

Commission, Britons are some of the most profligate consumers in Europe, needlessly

discarding millions of tonnes of food each year. Tempting though it is to frown at such

decadence, slap everyone on the wrist and carry on as before, this would be unpardonably lazy.

The study looked at six EU member states, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland, the

Netherlands and Romania, where data on food habits were reliable. Britain wastes twice as

much food per capita as any of the others: each person needlessly throwing away about 100kg

a year, and only 20 per cent of discarded food is inedible.

Food is wasted because it is not valued sufficiently. This is partly because it is relatively cheap

in Britain, swallowing only 11 per cent of household spending as against 34 per cent in

Romania. The UK also has a cultural problem. The marketplace bombards consumers with new

and enticing gastronomic offerings; most would rather have a bite of each and consign the rest

to the bin than turn down another culinary opportunity.

Britons are also too squeamish about refuse and decay. At long last the country is recycling

much of its waste, but it took years of unpopular campaigning and, eventually, the threat of

penalties to get there. People wanted to drop their waste in one place, close the lid and be

done with the matter.

Now, in general, food waste goes into food bins, though people are so averse to handling a

mould-speckled cucumber those food bins are filled with fare that is perfectly edible and

nourishing. This aversion is not to be found in countries that cannot afford it.

The moral case against waste should be enough to spur action. Tired cliché it may be, but it is

distasteful, when many go hungry, to abuse the privilege of plentiful food. There are other

reasons to reform, too. Long before consumption, food production involves clearing space for

farmland, transport and packaging, accounting for almost a third of CO2 emissions. This makes

waste reduction an environmental imperative. That aside, the more prudentially minded should

be persuaded by the financial case. The average household could save more than £500 a year

by eating food it unnecessarily discards.

This is an unglamorous policy area. That should not deter the government from addressing it.

Consumers often do not understand the meaning of sell-by dates, expiry dates and best before

dates, and so err on the side of caution. Packaging legislation can help with this. Government

can also impose waste targets on food suppliers such as supermarkets. They should not have

to, however. Supermarkets pile twice as much as they expect to sell on to their shelves to make

shoppers feel like they have walked into a culinary paradise. This is clearly unnecessary.

Supermarkets should also cut back on over-packaging; this only aggravates customers and

compounds the environmental impacts of food waste. And as some progressive supermarkets

do, all should give away whatever surplus remains.

Ultimately, each person must take responsibility for what they buy, eat and discard. “Waste

not, want not” is dated. Just waste not, whether there is risk of want or not.