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Environmental News: UK consumers throw away £10 billion worth of food

UK households waste 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes we purchase, according to a new study commissioned by WRAP.

The study finds that although some of this food is recycled most is still going to landfill.  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', while 'truly unavoidable food waste', like vegetable peelings, meat carcasses and teabags, accounts for 1.3 million tonnes a year or 19% of the total.

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%).' 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). 

The UK as a whole pays for but does not eat £10.2 billion of good food each year, equivalent to £420 of avoidable food for the average household each year.