Food waste In this feature household waste meat and fish cakes and desserts Waste not, want not Millions of tonnes of food and drink are thrown away every year in the UK. Here we outline who the biggest culprits were in 2011-12 SOURCE: FOOD STATISTICS POCKETBOOK 2014, DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS GREENGROCERS Around 41 million tonnes (mt) of food are purchased in the UK annually, mainly for use in the home Households wasted 7mt in the UK in 2012, or just under half of the15mt wasted overall Of the 7mt wasted, 4.2mt was avoidable, 1.2mt was possibly avoidable and 1.6mt was unavoidable the retail price of avoidable food and drink waste from UK homes was around 9 per household, per week, in 2012 or 14% of the average 66 spent each week on household food The cost to the UK of avoidable food and drink waste in 2012 was 12.5bn What do you think are the causes of such high food waste volumes in the UK? Could the way our food is labelled alter consumer behaviour? Meat and fish contributed the highest cost to avoidable food and drink waste, at 1.52 (16.9%), per household, per week, followed by homemade and pre-prepared meals at 1.50 (16.8%) Cakes and desserts contributed the least at 0.41(4.6%), per household, per week, followed by condiments at 0.47 (5.2%) Due to their high cost per kilogramme, meat and fish only contributed 7% in weight to the total avoidable food waste (17% in cost), while fresh vegetables and salad made up 19% in weight (13% in cost) 15mt of food and drink was wasted in the food chain in 2011-12 in the UK This is equivalent to about one third of the food purchased Or are other factors at play? Email your thoughts to tstoday@tsi.org.uk and they could be published in the next edition of the magazine. Manufacturing contributed the second-largest proportion of waste, at 26% (3.9mt), followed by hospitality with 6% (0.92mt). Grocery retail and wholesale together wasted only 2.9% (0.4mt) Credits Published You might also like Images: Shutterstock Tuesday 24 February, 2015 Home and Away February 2015 To share this page, click on in the toolbar