Six meals a week being thrown away

The average UK household throws away the equivalent of six meals every week, costing almost £60 a month, a study has found.
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Nov 2013, 00:01 BST

The waste costs the UK £12.5bn a year despite a significant drive to reduce the problem, a report by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) said.

The equivalent of 24 million slices of bread, 5.8 million potatoes and 5.9 million glasses of milk are thrown away every day, while the equivalent of 86 million whole chickens are discarded every year.

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Research by Which? found that 70 per cent of consumers were worried about rising food prices, but Wrap’s Household Food and Drink Waste in the UK 2012 report suggested people were unclear about storage and labelling, over-estimating portions and buying more they needed.

Households have cut avoidable food waste by 21 per cent since 2007, saving almost £13bn.