Turn food waste into an economic success story

In austerity Britain – where value ranges and price drops have become the norm on supermarket shelves – I read recently that households throw away 4.4 million tonnes of edible food each year.

According to figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), almost a third of all bread purchased by UK households is dumped when it could be eaten. Add to this around a quarter of all vegetables and potatoes, a fifth of all fruit and even 6.3% of alcoholic drinks.

The Flour Advisory Bureau states that bread remains one of the UK’s favourite foods, with 99% of households buying it and 12 million loaves sold each day. That’s 4.38 billion loaves a year which – at a conservative price of, say, 90p per loaf – equates to £3.9 billion a year spent on bread. Defra’s figures suggest we are wasting approximately £1.3 billion a year in thrown-away bread.

Shocking, isn’t it? And it becomes even more so when you consider statistics released by food redistribution charity FareShare, which reveal a sharp rise in demand on charities for food as people all over Britain struggle to put dinner on the table. 42% of charities surveyed reported an increase in demand for food in the past year as food prices soar and the recession bites, putting additional strain on families and people on low incomes.

So behind the stats lies the scope for a campaign for any socially responsible brand willing to take it on that could reduce our food waste mountain while at the same time helping inject much needed impetus into the economy.

In a similar vein to Persil’s Dirt is Good campaign, who would launch a Waste for Britain campaign? Sainsbury have recently encouraged people to freeze food rather than throw away; Pret does its Charity Run, where it donates unsold produce to homeless shelters at the end of each day; Waitrose supports the “Love food, hate waste” campaign… But the figures suggest that there is plenty of room for other brands to get involved.

Brand campaigns could focus on making consumers aware of the food they are wasting and how much this is costing them – creating new habits to reduce waste while encouraging them to spend their money on other things. Or they could help provide the means by which people who have a surplus of food could donate or redirect it to those in greatest need, e.g. through charities like FoodShare.

It could be bigger than food – we are a nation drowning in ‘stuff’. TK Maxx’s current “Give up Clothes for Good” campaign with Cancer Research UK springs to mind. Don’t hoard your stuff, don’t chuck it: donate it.