The research – which links WRAP’s 2009 survey of Household Food and Drink Waste in the UK (see letsrecycle.com story) to Defra’s 2008 Family Food Report of household food purchases – provides a detailed picture of patterns of behaviour regarding food waste.

By doing do, Defra estimates that 7.6 million tonnes of food and drink is wasted in the UK every year with 5.1 million tonnes of this avoidable: slightly lower than the 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink previously estimated to be wasted in the UK by WRAP. This is to take account of water absorbed by foods during cooking and excludes food which does not enter the kitchen but does enter the household waste stream such as windfall apples.

Findings

Other findings include that single person households waste on average 22% of their food and drink purchases, compared to 14% in all other household types.

Looking at fruit and vegetables in particular, 24% of edible vegetables purchases and 20% of edible fruit purchases were wasted – equivalent to 0.8 of a portion per person per day.

And, looking at the nine most expensive food types, three were in the bottom fifth for waste (fish, red meat and sweet snacks).

The document states: “In general, higher price items were wasted at a lower rate than lower price items…After drinks are excluded from the analysis, there is a correlation between price and amount wasted, with higher price foods being wasted at lower rates.”

In general terms, the analysis found that bread was the most wasted food and drink group, with 32% of edible bread wasted. Looking at more specific items, salad vegetables (39%), exotic fruit (38%) and white bread (40%) were the most wasted.

At the other end of the spectrum, the least wasted food and drink groups included alcoholic drinks (6%) and soft drinks (7%) and all dairy products – including milk. The least wasted specific food group was sweet snacks, with just 4% going to waste.

Source: Letsrecycle.com

_{^{By Caelia Quinault}}