The Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) research project landed the coveted Stubbins Innovation of the Year award at Thursday’s Re:fresh ceremony.
The project was established in response to the astonishing figure that UK consumers waste a third of the food they buy, with an estimated retail value of £10 million.
The range of project partners included Mack Multiples and Sainsbury’s, who were able to deliver a commercial, practical edge to academic and scientific research. The remaining four partners were WRAP, East Malling Research, RSSL and FRPERC at the University of Bristol.
A survey of 297 homes has thrown up some enlightening facts and figures, and illustrated a lack of understanding among consumers of a number of issues.
For example, some 56 per cent of all fruit purchased was not kept in the fridge, and this rose to 80 per cent for citrus, when researchers found that storage in the fridge would significantly increase product life. Conversely, 41 per cent of onions and 21 per cent of potatoes were stored in the fridge when recommendations say otherwise.
Andrew Parry, WRAP's household food waste prevention programme manager, said: “It was an honour to receive such a prestigious award on behalf of a fantastic project team - funded by WRAP, managed by East Malling Research and involving Sainsbury’s, Mack Multiples, RSSL and the Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre at Bristol University.
"The output from this project, recommendations for effective storage advice for fresh produce, has been taken up by several major retailers, formed the basis of a successful campaign by Love Food Hate Waste and is helping consumers to use more of the fresh produce they buy, and save money by throwing away less”
Asda’s innovative crownless fresh pineapples from Costa Rica and Anglia Business Solutions’s LINKFresh business management system were also nominated for the Stubbins-sponsored award.
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