Reducing Food Waste

Reducing food waste is at the heart of our efforts here at the Charnwood Community Fridge – we’re using this fifth article in our Recycling series to take a more detailed look at food waste in UK. We hope this will be useful in helping our users to make the best of the food they collect from us.

In this article, we’ll try to outline the principal causes of food waste, and what further steps we as a nation could take to minimise it. We’ll also provide some useful hints and tips on how we can all reduce food waste at home.

Postscript 15/9/25: The Government has proposed introducing a fourth waste stream for Food, which will require a separate bin and weekly rather than forthnightly collections. This is due to be implemented nationwide by March 2026. See more details here.

Watch this space for developments in our local area....

Introduction

We all waste a significant proportion of the food we buy….

This is inevitable, given our busy lifestyles and our increasing reliance on supermarket packaged food and pre-prepared ‘ready meals’.

It’s the sheer amount we waste as consumers which is alarming, though, given that the quantity we produce ourselves within the UK is also declining progressively, and we are becoming steadily more reliant on foreign imports.

This steady reduction in our nation’s food production is happening because our farming industry is being  progressively squeezed by falling returns, increasing raw material and labour costs, keen price competition from importers, and a chronic shortage of ‘home grown’ workers who are willing and able to do the hard manual work involved in planting and harvesting our crops. The recent removal of IHT exemption for all but the smallest farms is also likely to drive many 'family' farmers out of the industry from 2026 onwards.

These factors have all combined in the last year or so to produce a ‘perfect storm’ in the farming industry, and if we don’t halt this decline soon, more and more of our small family-run farms will disappear, and we will become dangerously dependent on imports. The ever-increasing pressure to build more and more new houses on green belt land will add yet more impetus for farmers to ‘cash-in’ and sell-up - and before IHT hits.  The increasing ‘re-wilding’ of our remaining agricultural land in response to environmental incentives will only reduce our reserve of economically viable arable land even further. Last but not least, ever increasing amounts of arable farmland are disappearing under solar panels erected by large solar farms – the new government has already committed to pushing this development forward to increase our grid capacity, so we should expect even more of our arable ‘reservoir’ to disappear over the next decade.

The Ukraine war and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis has already shown us the profound effects this can have on prices and availability of consumables. We can only hope that we’ll have enough capacity left to respond to a future crisis.

Plenty of incentives, then, to avoid wasting the valuable commodity that is our food..... 

How much of our food do we actually waste ?

A recent survey by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)(Ref 1) revealed that overall ca 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted annually in UK. Of this, a whopping  6.6 million is wasted by households, with the remaining 2.9 million disposed  by retail outlets prior to sale. The proportion of food purchased by consumers going to waste has remained stubbornly high at 20.2%, although the data did reveal a slight decline in reported waste between June and November 2023.

The survey also revealed a perceived problem with lack of incentives for consumers to reduce waste…25% of the households surveyed still indicated they were happy with throwing away more than a fifth of the food they’d bought, and weren’t open to changing their habits to try and reduce this, despite the substantial price hikes imposed on us all since 2022 by the cost-of-living crisis.

There is thus still something of a ‘mountain to climb’ if we are to achieve sustainability for our food supply.

Let’s look at this in more detail, and try to determine how we and the food industry could reduce the amount of food we send to landfill or incineration every week….

What are the principal sources of food waste ?

To find out how to remedy a problem, it’s first necessary to try to understand the root cause. Food waste can arise from multiple sources, and we need to understand the complex web of interactions that is involved in creating our food and supplying it to us, before we consider our own role as domestic consumers.

The Supply Chain

Before food ever reaches the supermarket shelves, a significant proportion of it goes to waste in the supply chain. 

The first step in the chain is the production process. This starts with the grower, as the initial supplier, where ‘raw’ crop losses can figure large.  A recent notable example of this was the adverse wet UK winter weather in 2023-4 and its effect on planting and subsequent harvests, which were 15-20% down on the previous year's (see Figure 1). This summer's prolonged drought conditions have also resulted in poor harvests in many areas in UK. This may be one of the reasons why inflation remains 'sticky' at almost 4%, with food price inflation still significantly higher at ca 6%.

Losses during storage can also be an issue, as can an absence of sufficient available labour to pick perishable crops once they mature.

As global warming progresses, and the world becomes ever more conflict-prone, we should expect this uncertainty of supply to increase worldwide. It’s thus imperative that we reduce our dependence on imported foreign crops which could fail and leave us with much higher costs...and even empty shelves. Think back to the state of our supermarket shelves in April and May 2020, and translate that into what we might experience in future on a regular basis…not a pleasant prospect, is it ?...

Another avoidable source of waste is ‘cosmetic’ rejection. Vegetable and other crops, which are otherwise perfectly viable, can also be rejected by packagers and manufacturers simply because they don’t  ‘look right’ – the confusion about EU banana rejection rules on shape and size in the mid-2010s was a good example of how this can be taken to extremes. Although food safety is important, rejecting items purely on cosmetic grounds is no longer acceptable. We all need to accept that ‘wonky’ vegetables and other ‘non-standard’ items are perfectly wholesome and should never be thrown away for cosmetic reasons alone (see Figure 2).

Losses during manufacturing and packaging processes represent another source of waste. Automated selection and packaging machinery is designed to produce a standardised product that the consumer will accept and is pleasing to the eye. The problem is that these often have relatively high rejection rates in order to achieve product consistency. Some argue that, as humble consumers, there’s nothing we can do about this. As in the case of many other types of product, though, we can actually influence suppliers and manufacturers…by voting with our credit and debit cards. This process of 'buying down' has already started in response to the financial rigours of the cost of living crisis, and will hopefully continue when food price inflation finally stabilises.

Getting the product to the supermarket or other retail outlet is another process that can add to supply chain waste – of various kinds. The old adage about items ‘falling off the backs of lorries’ springs to mind, though perhaps in a slightly different context (see Figure 3).

In-Store Waste – ‘Sell By’ and ‘Best Before’ Dates

Once the product actually reaches the supermarket shelves, the waste generation process hots up even further. Food retailing is heavily regulated in UK, and rightly so, of course, for the sake of our health and well-being as consumers.  It does, however, generate an awful lot of food waste. Much of this revolves around expiry dates (See Figure 4)

There has been much confusion in the past about the various dates manufacturers place on their packaging. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) are the regulatory body responsible for food safety in UK, and they impose strict controls on how supermarkets and other food suppliers store, handle and label our foods.

The key to understanding product labeling is to distinguish between food quality and food safety.

Suppliers are required by law to include a date on its packaging beyond which a food item is no longer deemed to be fit for human consumption. This is a safety measure, and is usually designated as ‘Use by:’ or ‘Sell By:’ The retailer is prohibited by UK law from selling (or even giving away) the product after this date. In practice a wide ‘safety margin’ is built into these expiry dates for most items, based on controlled conditions in retail storage. Most store managers will also normally stretch the rules a little and allow food banks and other charitable organisations to collect out of date items a day or so after expiry, but will normally refuse point blank to sell out of date items in-store. Most foods donated to food banks are safe to consume within a day or two of their expiry date, but some perishables which are prone to rapid bacterial spoilage, such as chilled uncooked meat and fish products, have the potential to cause illness and should in general not be used after their expiry date has passed.

‘Best Before’ dates, on the other hand, are concerned with product quality, and are not required by law. When universally included on packaging in the past, they were responsible for much unnecessary food waste, due to the confusion in the minds of consumers about their meaning. Products were often perfectly safe to consume well after their ‘Best Before’ date, but were thrown away by consumers, who believed them to indicate they were unsafe. The food industry turned a blind eye to this waste for obvious commercial reasons, but were forced to take action once the truth emerged – Morrisons were the first to ‘lead the charge’ in 2022 by removing ‘Best Before’ labels from some of their dairy products, and many others have followed since. See this link for a more detailed discussion on how we can encourage our supermarkets to reduce waste.

It’s important to remember that packaging expiry date labels refer only to viability during storage by the retailer before sale – retailers are required by FSA rules to control storage conditions carefully and keep logs of temperature records for inspection at audit.  An ‘in-date’ sell by label does not of course guarantee quality or safety after purchase – handling and storage of the item is the responsibility of the consumer after it leaves the store, and for the sake of our own health, we should always ensure our food is stored safely once we get it home.

An interesting and informative guide to food storage conditions can be found in Reference (2) for those who like to delve more deeply into the science.

Thus the key question is: What can we do as consumers to ensure we minimise food waste while keeping our food safe to eat?

Reducing Food Waste at Home

Here are some practical suggestions as to how we can all reduce food wastage in the home. I’ve not listed them in any kind of priority order – hopefully at least some of them will prove useful to our readers.

Most of the suggestions are based on good, old-fashioned, common sense….our more experienced domestic science practitioners will most likely already be aware of many of them from past experience. I’ve provided some additional hints on freezer and fridge management, since these devices are now so critical to the way we handle and store our food.

Note particularly the emphasis on importance of a balanced diet for good health – we hope to take a look at this subject in more detail in a future article.

Shopping Tips:

1)      Before you do your main shop, plan your meals in advance for the next few days, and make a list of what you’ll actually need (and don’t forget to take it with you !).

2)      If you’re on a tight budget (like most of us nowadays), and have an internet connection, use one of the online price checkers to find out where your chosen items are cheapest. There’s a lot to be gained by doing this regularly, despite the widespread ‘price matching’ campaigns, since prices for the same or very similar items do still vary considerably, and fierce food retailing competition often generates special offers which are visible online before they appear in-store. It will also allow you to compare different brands of the same product type, and plan your shopping ‘itinerary’ accordingly. A good example of such a comparison site is Trolley

3)      When in-store, don’t be tempted to buy more than you know you can consume safely before it deteriorates. Follow your list where possible, avoid impulse-buying, and steer well clear of ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offers (affectionately known as BOGOFs). These offers are usually designed by the retailer to make you buy more than you really need. Hopefully, with this in mind, you’ll have a more productive shopping experience, spend a lot less…and get home sooner !

4)      Avoid highly-processed so-called ‘junk food’ wherever possible – although it’s more convenient and requires less preparation, it’s a lot more expensive than preparing a similar meal yourself from basic ingredients. It’s also usually stuffed with preservatives, excess salt and ‘hidden’ sugar, fats and excess carbohydrates. Although these may make the products taste more appetising, these ingredients will all reduce your chances of keeping your family’s weight healthy, and may even lay the foundations for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and /or cardiovascular disease in the longer term.

5)      Sadly, many of us in UK are prone to diet-related health issues due to our stressful and sedentary lifestyles – remember the importance of a healthy diet overall when planning your meals…for yourself, and especially for your kids if you have any. Take a look at the health check page for suggestions on some simple home testing you can do yourself to monitor and keep track of your own health parameters.

6)      To help your budgeting, look for ‘Yellow Label’ offers – most supermarkets reduce prices significantly towards the end of the day of expiry for their perishable products (but remember to avoid impulse- buying more than you can use just because it’s cheap – it may actually prove more expensive than paying full price for a single portion if you end up throwing most of it away).

7)      Use your local Community Fridge (CF), or your nearest food bank if you’re eligible, but please don’t take more than you need.  Make sure you heed any restrictions they may impose on what you can take…..our local CFs are the only opportunity we all have to recycle food which is not means-tested or geographically restricted. They and their donors do a wonderful job for their communities, and deserve our wholehearted thanks…and our cooperation.

8)      Don’t take the kids…..(only kidding!).

Cooking & Storage Tips

9)      Be imaginative in your cooking and meal preparation – use up any leftovers from your meals in omelettes, stews, etc. You’ll find plenty of recipe suggestions online in the ‘Top Tips’ sections of dedicated websites.

10)   Don’t prepare more than you need for your meals and avoid serving ‘king-size’ portions – at best they’ll only get left half-eaten and end up in the bin. Perhaps more significantly from a health perspective, they are also likely to encourage chronic over-eating.

11)   Make good use of your freezer space – you can actually freeze many more types of food than you might think. Leftovers can often be successfully frozen for later, but make sure you label them with a preparation date on the container. It’s all too easy to lose track of what’s what in a well-stocked freezer - and how long it's been there. Avoid multiple freeze-thaw cycles, as these increase the risk that the food will deteriorate more rapidly, and could make it unsafe.

12)   Manage your freezer actively – it’s easy to fill it up with stuff you’ve bought but will never get round to eating before it expires. Have a periodic clean-out on a regular basis and dispose of anything obviously out of date. It's also wise to use items in rotation - i.e. use up the oldest first. Aim to keep a reserve of space to accommodate those unexpected bargains that come your way, but avoid leaving it too empty – freezers work best if they are well-stocked, and you’ll get less temperature variation if you keep yours relatively full.

13)   Be careful how you handle your food before preparing it, especially in hot weather. Always replace partially-used items in the fridge or freezer promptly after opening them. The average kitchen is literally teeming with bacteria, and the little devils will waste no time in colonising any food you leave exposed at room temperatures above 10oC. Remember that the toxic products they can produce aren’t always detectable by smell or taste, and you won’t know you’ve been ‘hit’ until unpleasant, and possibly even dangerous, symptoms appear. The recent E. Coli scares in the media exemplify the need for care at home.

14)   Hand hygiene is important during food preparation – always wash your hands before starting to prepare a meal, and be careful when handling raw meat products, particularly if you have cuts or abrasions on your hands. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly after you’ve finished handling these items before doing anything else to avoid spreading contamination ‘far and wide’. 

15)   Be aware that the temperature within your fridge will vary considerably from place to place in the cabinet, particularly if you open and closed frequently.  In warm weather the average temperature in your fridge’s door compartment can be well over 10oC, while the area next the back plate or internal cooling coils is still around 4-8oC. Store your more perishable items such as milk, meat and fish products accordingly. A digital ‘In-Out’ thermometer with dual probes and display (see Figure 5) is an inexpensive and valuable investment for managing your food safely, and will also help you reduce waste.

16)   Although a freezer is arguably your best tool for preserving food, (see footnote (a)) there are other, more traditional, ways of doing it. Despite the higher cost of sugar nowadays, it’s worth considering jams, chutneys or even pickles if you fall heir to excess fruit or vegetables during the season. (If you’ve followed our gardening page and decided to become a grower yourself, this way of preserving may turn out to be a godsend. Be aware, though, that jams and chutneys are still prone to attack by mould, so ensure your pots and containers are scrupulously clean before bottling, and check them regularly for signs of fungal colonisation during storage.)

17)   If you have access to a garden or other secure outside space, bear in mind that you can also use this to store food during the winter months. Unheated garage space, for example, will remain well below 10oC in midland UK for most of the period between November and March. A simple outside food safe can be constructed of larger boxes with lids, and you can even use a defunct fridge or freezer cabinet for the job. This can provide a valuable ‘overflow store’, particularly just before Christmas when you’re laying in supplies for the festive period. Just make sure whatever you use is weather-proof….and securely locked at nights !

Final Thoughts

We hope this brief guide to food waste reduction will provide some useful hints on how to avoid food waste at home, and perhaps inspire you to delve further into the subject. You’ll find links to further reading in the References section below.

For anyone in Charnwood keen on enhancing their cookery skills and who would like some formal training, Shelthorpe Family Hub provides regular courses during school term-time. For details of this Autumn’s courses, follow the link to our new Cookery page. We’re also planning to update our ‘hot tips’ section on the cookery page regularly with simple ways of preventing food waste – why not check it out now ?

Happy eating…….

 Links & References

1)      WRAP Food waste Survey UK 2023: https://www.wrap.ngo/resources/report/uk-household-food-waste-tracking-survey-autumn-2023

2)      Food Storage Conditions: https://www.encyclopedia.com/food/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/storage-food#:~:text=Most%20food%20stores%20best%20at,F%20(0%C2%B0C).

3)      Charnwood Community Fridge Website: Cookery Page: https://sites.google.com/view/charnwoodcf/cookery

 Footnotes

a)      A quick heads-up about freezer temperatures: When considering how long food will remain safe to consume during freezer storage, it’s important to know how cold your freezer actually keeps the food within it, and whether its cooling is uniform throughout the cabinet. I’d recommend an external digital thermometer (with dual remote probes if you have a fridge-freezer combination) to monitor the internal with a probe for each section. Your freezer should have a star designation (*** is usually taken as indicating food can be stored for up to 3 months). Star ratings are more of a guide than anything else, and a thermometer will give you a much better idea of how your freezer is actually performing.

b)      Here’s ‘the science bit’ on frozen food storage…. the complex mixtures of water, salts and fats found in many foods, will always contain pockets of liquid water, even at temperatures as low as -30oC, and bacterial growth can potentially occur whenever liquid water and nutrients are present. To minimise any bacterial growth, freezer temperatures should be maintained below -18oC, particularly if you’re storing your food items for long periods. Remember also that freezer and fridge compressors ‘cycle’ (i.e. go on and off periodically in response to the thermostat) and this creates a variable temperature profile with peaks and troughs. Ideally, therefore, for safe long term storage, a freezer should cycle within the range -18C to -25C. As for fridges, note that opening the door (or the top if a chest freezer) will raise the temperature locally for short periods, so avoid storing anything you want to keep long-term in the area just next the door.

c)       Storing liquids in your freezer: Many of us at some time will have discovered for ourselves the fact that ice is less dense than water, (and had to clear up the consequences afterwards !). This simple physical principle means that a container full to the brim with water will occupy more space than the volume of the container holds after it freezes, with one of two results: 1) it forces the top of the container off and spills some of the liquid into the cabinet (which then re-freezes wherever it lands) or 2) It actually bursts or cracks the container if the top has remained secure. If you plan to store milk or juice frozen, always ensure there is enough airspace above the liquid to allow for expansion, and never freeze them in glass containers, for obvious reasons.

d)      When opening and closing your freezer, beware of the ‘shut-out’ effect. This arises due to fact that when you open the freezer door you introduce a significant volume of air at room temperature into the cabinet. When you close the door, this warm air mixes with the much cooler air in the cabinet, and cools very rapidly. Its volume decreases suddenly as a result, reducing the pressure within the freezer. If you try to open the door again immediately you may find it just won’t let you. This effect is normal, and is particularly noticeable with large upright cabinet-type display freezers with effective door seals, which can take up to a minute or so for the pressure to equalise again.

e)      The above points explain some of the pitfalls with freezer storage – one of the best ways of avoiding some of them is to plan what you want to put in or take out before you open the door. Planning your next meal while standing in front of an open freezer door is not the most economical (or indeed the safest) way of using your freezer (we’ve all done it though!). It also helps to keep your freezer tidy and store items that you use frequently close to the door or at the front of the shelf. Not only will you minimize temperature fluctuation, but you’ll also avoid the need for frequent defrosting by reducing icing-up.

First Published July 2024; Revised 22/9/25

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