This week’s front page story includes the first guesstimate I have ever seen at the amount of food wasted by the UK consumer each year. To say it would feed a small, developing country would be a gross under-estimation. It is not a surprise though.

It may not be in the industry’s best interests that wastage is greatly reduced - the quicker consumers run out of food, the quicker they revisit the shelves to restock. The sheer magnitude of the figure is staggering, but it has little effect on the day-to-day lives of the produce supplier. Where WRAP funding will undoubtedly benefit the industry, however, is in reducing the wastage that currently does nothing but take value out of the supply chain.

The perennial issue with perishable products such as fruit and vegetables is that they will not always perform how you expect or want them to, because of the long list of uncontrollables in the chain from field to fork.

No-one has yet invented a foolproof method. Technologically and logistically, this industry has advanced beyond all recognition in the last decade. But every day brings new challenges and anything that can add a greater element of control into the mix at any stage is worth pursuing.

I, for one, hope that funding such as that available through WRAP is used to bring more waste-saving concepts to life and save the extra pennies that can make all the difference.