Herefordshire Council is supporting new campaign, 'Love Food Hate Waste', that reveals we are throwing away a staggering third of the food we buy in the UK - most of which could have been eaten.
The astonishing statistic follows pioneering research undertaken earlier this year by WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which shows that for every three bags of food shopping we bring home, we effectively put one straight in the bin.
The campaign was launched yesterday (November 1) by celebrity chef and presenter Ainsley Harriott who agrees: "The amount of food we throw away is criminal and we all need to take action and start changing our behaviour. That's why I'm supporting Love Food Hate Waste," he says.
"It is sad that so much good food is being wasted needlessly," explains Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive. "At a cost of £8b a year, it's a serious issue that not only impacts the environment but our pockets too".
The 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign has been created to raise awareness of the problem and provide information on what simple steps can be taken to combat the problem, which has a significant environmental impact. "Our research showed that 90 per cent of us are completely unaware of the amount of food we all throw away. Once attention is drawn to it however, we know that people are surprised and keen to take action" comments Liz Goodwin.
Most of the food thrown away ends up in landfill where it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Although this is only part of the picture. All the embedded energy used to produce, package, transport and store food which could have been eaten, but instead ends up being thrown away, produces the equivalent of at least 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
WRAP believes that action on food waste would deliver big environment benefits. "If we could all halt the amount of potentially edible food being wasted in this way, we would make a big impact - the same as taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads" explains Liz Goodwin.
In addition to press advertising and a supporting PR campaign that features celebrity chefs, home economists and well known personalities, the Love Food Hate Waste campaign features a website lovefoodhatewaste.com which gives advice, ideas on preparation, storage, portioning and recipes.
The campaign is also fully supported by the Women's Institute,
who are launching their own 'Love Food Champions' initiative which
will reach out to communities and provide on the ground support on
how to minimise food waste across the UK.
"We are passionate about food and preventing waste. We want to help
individuals and families to reduce waste and that's why we are
strongly supporting Love Food Hate Waste" says Fay Mansell, NFWI
Chair.
Ainsley Harriott, the popular TV chef is supporting the campaign, along with a host of other chefs and well known celebrities. He adds; "This campaign is aimed at everyone. You don't have to be a chef to know how to cut down on food waste, you just need to care about your food and your pocket and the rest follows."
Richard Wood, Herefordshire Council's waste services manager, said: "Our waste prevention team has been working hard to raise awareness about food waste reduction for some time. We welcome WRAP's new Love Food Hate Waste initiative and we hope our communities will embrace this new message which has the potential to help the environment and save them money in the process."
The council's Waste Prevention Team have arranged road shows promoting the new campaign and will be visiting supermarkets at the following locations:
They will be 11am - 3pm at:
11-Nov-07 Sunday Tesco Ledbury
13-Nov-07 Tuesday Sainsbury's Hereford
15-Nov-07 Thursday Tesco St Peters Worcester
16-Nov-07 Friday Asda Bromsgrove
17-Nov-07 Saturday Malvern Morrisons
18-Nov-07 Sunday Leominster Morrisons
19-Nov-07 Monday Kidderminster Sainsbury's
21-Nov-07 Wednesday Droitwich Waitrose
23-Nov-07 Friday Waitrose Malvern
26-Nov-07 Monday Asda Hereford
28-Nov-07 Tuesday Sainsburys Redditch
29-Nov-07 Wednesday Worcester Warndon Tesco
09-Dec-07 Sunday Redditch Morrisons