Just exactly how much food are we throwing away uneaten? Ursula Hirschkorn, 36, of North London kept a diary for a week to discover just how much food her family throws out, and the amount is staggering:
The average family throws away £610 of perfectly good food each year — much of it totally untouched — according to
figures released this week. That works out at £11.73 a week. And all of that adds to the £10billion of waste across the country.
I was in our local supermarket late at night, about to buy some bread from the 'bakery' stand, but an employee was standing there. Thinking he may be about to price it down I waited while he did his thing.
To my surprise he swept about 30 loaves, 40 bagels, 40 buns, 30 or so cream cakes, cookies, and much more ... into a big big plastic sack and threw it away. The big bin was in the car park near my car so I watched that happen, it certainly wasn't destined for a homeless shelter.
The bread products had reached their sell-by date and so they all went in the bin. Those loaves, if I had picked on up a second sooner, would have cost me around £1. The total cost of what they throw away every day is staggering.
And this was just a small local branch, with about 4 isles, not one of the huge places.
Tescos, every little helps (!)
I also have a larger compost bin by the garden as well.
I think some stores are cutting back on their refrigeration a few degrees to save money or employees are just poorly handling items.