Food campaigners have urged supermarkets to cut unnecessary food offers, following a statement from prime minister Gordon Brown pledging to reduce food waste and stem escalating food costs.
A Cabinet Office report released today calls for a reduction in food waste, stating that up to 40 per cent of groceries can be lost before they are consumed due to processing, storage and transport facilities.
The report says UK households could save an average of £420 a year by not throwing away 4.1 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten.
Speaking before the start of the G8 summit in Japan today, Brown said he would prioritise action to tackle food costs. “If we are to get food prices down, we must do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste, which is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week,” he told journalists on the way to the summit.
Kath Dalmeny, policy director of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, said: “Gordon Brown is right to say that wasting good food also wastes money. But he appears to point the finger of blame only at individuals, rather than telling supermarkets that they need to sharpen up their practices. There is huge waste throughout the food supply chain, caused by ‘buy one get one free’ promotions, and cosmetic standards for fresh produce.
“Supermarkets bombard shoppers with messages to buy more and eat more, with highly persuasive price promotions,” she added. “The promotions are carefully designed to prompt impulse purchases. Shoppers end up buying products that they did not plan to, and a lot of that food goes to waste.
“We also know of farmers who have had to throw away up to a fifth of their crop just because supermarkets say the fruit or veg is the wrong colour, size or shape. There is huge waste even before the food gets to the supermarket shelf. Gordon should use his influence with the supermarkets to prevent this.”
Sustain, an alliance of organisations working to promote better food and farming, welcomed the Cabinet Office report, saying that government leadership is needed to make the food chain more fair and less environmentally damaging.
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