Written by Jennifer O’Mara
Introduction
In 2015, over 4000 tonnes of avoidable food was wasted in the UK, an increase of 2.8% per person per year. Half ofwhich was food not used in time with a further 40% thrown away. One reason for this was due to over cooking of foodby preparing too much and not eating the leftovers. As a result, fresh vegetables are contributing to 3 million tonnes offood waste per year (1).
Food waste can be divided into three categories; avoidable, possibly unavoidable and unavoidable. Avoidablehousehold food waste (HHFW) is defined as food thrown away due to food going past its best date which was onceedible but is no longer . Possibly unavoidable are ‘parts of food that are considered edible’ for example skins of fruitsand vegetables(2). Unavoidable food waste includes items which are not edible under any circumstances such as eggshells.
The Department for Environment, food and Rural affairs (DEFRA) set a target to reduce HHFW in the UK to 50% by2025. Five years on the 2020 report by DEFRA shows a 7% reduction in food waste per person and 1.4 metric tonnes inthe home which is equivalent to 1400 bags of sugar (3).
What is the issue with HHFW?
6.6 million tonnes of household food waste are thrown away annually with the number of foods wasted in the UKtotalling 9.5 million, adding environmental strain on natural resources. In the UK, the effects of climate change areevident with changing rainfall patterns and warmer summers affecting farming and crop growth, producing higher CO2emissions (4)(3). One third of food which is lost through waste is avoidable further emitting 30% Greenhouse gases andincreasing carbon footprint (6)(5).
Avoidable staples such as 350,000 tonnes of bread, 320,000 tonnes of potatoes and 290,000 tonnes of milk are activelywasted due to their readily availableness and low price(21).Consumer uncertainty surrounding food knowledge andsafety cause edible food to be thrown away (7). This not only hinders the UK’s opportunity at achieving the CourtauldCommitment, but each UK household are losing on average £500(8).
Why is this an important topic?
An increasing number of consumers are buying and throwing away perfectly consumable food which are contributingto the £30 million worth of food ending up as waste, leading to an increase in food scarcity and increased foodprices(9). Without intervening food waste could increase to 1.1m tonnes by 2025 causing food shortages in everydayitems such as fruit and vegetables, 60% of which could be avoided(10).Changing food behaviours is necessary as manyconsumers put left overs in the fridge to consume the following day, yet many of these leftovers are often forgottenabout turning to avoidable food waste. 22% of fresh food that is wasted is avoidable as consumers would rather eatsomething fresh than re-use the leftovers(12).
Are there any environmental impacts?
Every year the UK redistributes less than 10,000 tonnes of surplus food worth £19.6m from the retail sector. 262millionpeople could be fed helping 4,266 people who sleep rough every night and are food insecure if the food system wasstronger(11)(12). If food is continually wasted due to behaviours or lack of confidence, adding further strain on theeconomy. Not meeting food waste targets will impact natural resources meaning by 2050, the UK will need three timesmore resources to help cope with global growth in population which is expected to reach 2 billion(13).Farmers will beon demand needing 70% more feed with a water shortage of 40% and farming methods more intense and lesssustainable(14).
WRAP reported that food waste had significantly decreased at the beginning of the pandemic by 20% (April 2020) incomparison to pre lockdown which was 34% in 2019. A re-evaluation in June showed that food waste levels hadslightly risen to 27% with only three out of ten consumers understanding the link between climate change and foodwaste. This is significantly lower than any other sector (15).
What has been done and what can we do to help?
Date labels are often misinterpreted causing edible food to be wasted due to uncertainly around food safety. Confusionarises around “use by” and “best before” with edible high-risk foods such as meat and dairy thrown away after the bestbefore. The use by date is used to express the level of food safety whereby food can be eaten until the use by date butnot after. The best before date indicates the quality of food and that food will deteriorate after the specified date butfood is still safe for consumption (16)(17). WRAP and LFHW are running campaigns to make reducing food wasteeasy. Their campaigns include chill the fridge out, an online tool which educates consumers on fridge temperature andmaintenance in order to reduce food waste. The online portion planner enables you to plan meals in advance byprovides guidance on serving sizes to prevent food waste having helped prevent 130,000 tonnes of food waste (18).
Conclusions
Avoidable HHFW is an ongoing issue as 1.4 million tonnes of avoidable fresh produce is wasted every year causing agrowth in food insecurity, poor diet quality leading to poor health outcomes adding a strain to struggling health services(19). By targeting behavioural attitudes and encouraging meal planning through the love food hate waste online mealplanner, consumers will be more aware of the amount of food needed per household and how much to cook, preventingover buying and cooking thus reducing food waste(6). This will reduce carbon footprint and water waste whilepreventing an increase in food waste. Working across systems can help the UK to reduce avoidable HHFW whileachieving better nutrition outcomes by enhancing policies which promote this (20). 821 million people in the worlddon’t have enough food even though there’s enough food on the planet to feed everyone – yet in the UK there is 400tonnes of avoidable food wasted every year, we need to do better to reduce this problem (22)(1).
REFERENCES
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(2) Waste and Resources Action Programme (2017). Household Food Waste in the UK, 2015. Available from: https://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Household_food_waste_in_the_UK_2015_Report.pdf .
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(15) Waste and Resources Action Programme 2020. Food Waste And Covid-19 – Survey 3: Life In Flux. [online] Available at: https://wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Food-waste-and-Covid-19–Survey-3-Life-in-Flux.pdf
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