Food Waste Action Week starts today!
Food Waste Action Week (17 to 23 March) starts today, which is the UK's biggest annual food waste reduction campaign.
Since 2021, Food Waste Action Week has been connecting businesses, government organisations and global partners to increase awareness amongst citizens about the devastating impact that food waste is having on the planet.
Buy loose fruit and veg
The mission, from Love Food Hate Waste, is that they want to get more and more people across the UK talking about why buying loose fruit and vegetables is better.
Research by WRAP, the Global Environment Action NGO, looked into the relationship between plastic packaging and five fruit and vegetable items frequently wasted at home, as well as the impact of date labels and storage temperatures, and revealed significant opportunities to reduce both food waste and plastic packaging.
Food waste feeds climate change:
- globally up to 40% of food produced ends up as waste, representing 8-10% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;
- in the UK, 70% of post-farm gate food waste comes from the home;
- by industry taking up WRAP's three recommendations, a staggering 14,000,000 shopping baskets full of food waste could be saved along with 1,110 truck loads of plastic.
Using new insights and buildings on existing evidence, summarised in their work, WRAP recommends the following actions for food retailers and their suppliers, to support citizens and reduce the amount of uncut fresh produce and single use plastic packaging that gets thrown away in our homes:
- sell loose: sell loose unless it can be shown that plastic packaging reduces overall food waste, as this reduces problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and household food waste;
- remove date labels: do not apply a date label to uncut fresh-produce, unless it can be shown that a Best Before date reduces overall food waste, and do not use any alternative wording to "Best Before" when a date label is applied, to reduce household food waste;
- provide best practice guidance on storage: at home, store below 5°C, and help people understand the benefits of storing appropriate fresh-produce in the fridge, set at the right temperature, to reduce household food waste.
If all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, 60,000 tonnes of food waste could be saved every year.
Buying loose fruit and vegetables means people only buy what they need, and less food end up in the bin.
Get involved this Food Waste Action Week!
Love Food Hate Waste, recommends we try the following, this week and beyond:
- try a portion planner to provide you with guidance on how much food you need for each person for each meal;
- learn how to chill the fridge out: use this tool to find out how to set your fridge at the optimum temperature;
- learn the differences in food packaging date labels and save your food from being wasted;
- try compl-eating recipes: compl-eating is about eating the whole ingredient or food and not letting edible parts go to waste like broccoli stalks, cauliflower leaves and potato skins;
- make sure you use up your leftovers by searching for leftover recipes by ingredient, dietary requirements or even cooking time;
- freeze the food you haven't had time to eat, as this acts like a pause button, giving you more time to eat the food you have bought.
You can pledge your support for Food Waste Action Week here.
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