Brits are worst in Europe for wasting food

Figures from the European Commission have revealed that Brits throw away far more food than anyone else in Europe - binning 24 stone of perfectly good food every 12 months. It begs the question of how we are getting things so wrong.

It's worth pointing out that this included waste created in hotels and restaurants too - but this is a tiny fraction of the total. And to make matters worse, the EC only counted 'avoidable waste' - or the food that we could easily have eaten if we hadn't made such a mess of the process of shopping, cooking and eating.

Why the waste?

The figures, revealed in the Environmental Research Letters publication, found that we throw away an incredible 45% of all the vegetables we buy, and 41% of fruit. Given the price of fresh fruit and vegetables, it's almost possible to imagine this is possible, but there's a good chance the fault lies in the gulf between the quantity of fruit and vegetables we think we will eat when we're optimistically wandering the aisles, and the reality of the junk we gorge when we get home.

In many cases, waste is also due to the fact that so few people are knowledgeable and capable cooks. If we don't have a handful of recipes we can call on when some of the fruit and vegetables in the fridge start to look a bit tired, then we're far more likely just to sling them in the rubbish.

We also throw away 23% of all the meat and fish we buy. The problem here may well be an issue with storage. Meat and fish can both be frozen successfully, it's just that in many cases it's left to fester at the back of the fridge, before we discover it a day after the use by date, and put it in the bin.
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Meanwhile, we throw away 29% of cereals (including rice and pasta), 17% of the eggs we buy, 13% of yogurt, 10% of cheese and 7% of milk. Some of this is because of our confusion over labelling. There are two sets of dates on food - best before and use by. The former is just a guide as to when the product might taste at its best. The latter is the one to focus on if you want to avoid food poisoning. Confusion over these dates leads millions of people to ditch perfectly good food, well before it could cause anyone any harm.

The cost

These figures don't just highlight a terrible waste of natural resources - which we have to pay the council to dispose of. They also reveal an enormous financial squandering. If we spend £30 on fresh fruit and vegetables each week, and waste around a third of it, it means we're pitching a tenner into the bin on a weekly basis.

The only bright spot in all of this research is that the figures for the UK were taken from 2007, and food waste has fallen since then - by around a fifth according to WRAP. Clearly, however, we have a long way to go before we get anywhere near sensible levels of waste.

But what do you think? Do you chuck this much food away? And what are your best tips for avoiding food waste in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments.

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