The food we waste

Thanks to Fred's Taste it don't waste it post highlighting a report about food waste from the U.K. This link to the UK Waste & Resources Acton Programme study on the "food we waste" is worth a look. The 237 page report includes these "key facts," which highlighted statistics revealing fresh produce items - potatoes and salad at the top of the list - are commonly and unnecessarily wasted by UK consumers. I would think the U.S. consumer probably wastes as much or more than the U.K. consumer. From the report:


What do we waste?
U.K. households waste 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes we purchase. Most of this food waste is currently collected by local authorities (5.9 million tonnes or 88%). Some of this will be recycled but most is still going to landfill where it is liable to create methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The remaining 800,000 tonnes is composted by people at home, fed to animals or tipped down the sink.
* Most of the food we throw away (4.1 million tonnes or 61%) is avoidable and could have been eaten if it had been managed better. Truly unavoidable food waste, like vegetable peelings, meat carcasses and teabags, accounts for 1.3 million tonnes a year or 19% of the total, with the remainder being ‘possibly avoidable’ food waste – items such as bread crusts that some people choose not to eat and potato skins which can be eaten when food is prepared in certain ways but not in others.
* The type of avoidable food we waste in the largest quantity is potato; 359,000 tonnes of potato goes uneaten every year, including 177,400 tonnes of potatoes thrown away whole and untouched (49%). Other commonly wasted types of food are slices of bread (328,000 tonnes a year), apples (190,000 tonnes including 178,800 tonnes thrown away whole and untouched), and meat and fish meals (161,000 tonnes).
* The food that is bought and then thrown away uneaten in the greatest proportion is salad; in the UK 45% by weight of all purchased salad is thrown away (60% by cost). Other foods that are wasted in high proportions include bakery items (31% of that purchased is thrown away) and fruit (26% of that purchased is thrown away).
* Nearly half (46%) of the avoidable food we throw away is in a fresh, raw or minimally processed state, with an additional 27% thrown away having been cooked or prepared in some way and 20% ready to consume when purchased. Starchy foods are most commonly thrown away after being prepared, with 45,000 tonnes of rice, 33,000 tonnes of pasta and 105,000 tonnes of potato thrown away each year, suggesting people prepare too much.
* Over one quarter of the avoidable food thrown away each year (nearly 1.2 million tonnes) is thrown away still in its packaging, either opened or unopened.
* Nearly 1 million tonnes of food is thrown away whole or unopened; this is nearly one quarter of all avoidable food waste. Foods most commonly thrown away whole are individual items of fruit; 2.9 billion items are thrown away every year. Vegetables and bakery items are also routinely thrown away whole and untouched; 1.9 billion whole vegetables are thrown away each year and 1.2 million bakery items.
Items of note that are thrown away whole and unused include:
* Grapes (4.8 billion a year)
* Potatoes (1.9 billion a year)
* Apples (1.6 billion as year)
* Slices of bread (2.6 billion a year)
* Tomatoes (1 billion a year
* Bread rolls (775 million a year)


How much does it cost us?
* Food waste is costly; the UK as a whole pays for but does not eat £10.2 billion of good food each year. That’s
£420 of avoidable food for the average household each year.
* Food thrown away whole and unopened is particularly costly at more than £2.3 billion a year for the UK as a whole. Whole and unopened fruit costs UK households £570 million while whole and unopened vegetables cost £250 million and whole and unopened bakery items cost £300 million a year.
* Food thrown away still in date costs UK households at least £950 million every year.

Who is wasting this food?
* We all waste food unnecessarily. On average, every one of us throws away 70kg of avoidable food a year – that’s the weight of an average person.
* And we don’t realise how much we throw away. Even householders who are adamant that their household wastes no food at all are throwing away 88kg of avoidable food a year; that’s a typical 50l kitchen bin full.
* Larger households waste more avoidable food than smaller households; certain types of households (e.g. households with children) appear to waste more food but that is mainly because they contain more people.
* Single person households waste the most food on a per capita basis.
* Contrary to accepted wisdom, older people waste as much avoidable food as younger people (1.2kg per person per week); retired households appear to waste less but that is because they tend to be smaller.
* Households that have never composted at home waste more food than households that either currently compost or used to compost (3.3kg per week compared with 2.5 and 2.1kg per week respectively).

Why do we waste food?
* The main reasons for throwing away food that could have been eaten if it had been managed better are:
* left on the plate after a meal (1,225,700 tonnes worth £3.3 billion);
* passed its date (808,000 tonnes worth £2.2 billion);
* looked, smelt or tasted bad (750,500 tonnes worth £1.8 billion);
* went mouldy (465,700 tonnes worth £960 million); and
* left over from cooking (360,600 tonnes worth £830 million).