Good Food Is Being Needlessly Thrown Away!

Have you ever wondered what happens to food that is unsold or past it’s sell-by date? According to a new report, over one million tonnes of food is being “avoidably” discarded, of which at least 185,000 tonnes could be used to make safe and healthy meals for people who are hungry

According to the Trussell Trust, more than one million people have asked for three days’ food supplies from food banks in the UK this year. In these times of austerity, hunger and food-banks, throwing away 360 million meals is obscene. If this food were saved and redistributed, it would represent a “four-fold increase” on current levels of food being saved.

Richard Swannell, director at waste-prevention charity Wrap, which produced the government-commissioned report, told The Independent: “This is the first time in the UK and even in the world that a survey has gone right down the supply chain to see how much waste is avoidable.

“The key thing is to really understand the scale of the problem – that focuses the mind. What we need to do is actually have a lot more infrastructure that means there is collaboration between industry, retailers and charities. It takes some organisation.”

The report, ‘Quantification of Food Surplus and Waste’, found that almost £300 million could be saved every year through better use of surplus food. More food currently being thrown away could also be used as animal feed, the report added.

Food safety procedures will have to be strict and supermarkets must not simply “transfer the waste problem” over to charities, Mr Swannell said.

“I am fairly confident that the combination of this report and other changes means we are going to be seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of redistribution in the next two or three years,” he said.