Household food waste requires action

Food waste is subdivided into i) parts of food that are generally considered edible, and ii) parts of food considered inedible. The edible parts, which form around three-quarters of UK household food waste, generally could have been eaten if managed properly and are therefore preventable. Examples include expired milk, leftovers from dinner and burnt rice. It should be noted that much of these ‘edible parts’ are no longer suitable for consumption when discarded: they may have passed a use-by date or gone mouldy. The inedible parts of food waste includes eggshells, bones, and citrus peels.

To effectively reduce household food waste, it is important to focus on the categories that contribute the most to the total amount of “edible parts” thrown away. The largest proportion comes from fresh vegetables and salads, followed by meals (both homemade and pre-prepared) and bakery items. Examining the amount of edible food within both broad and specific food categories can help target efforts.

Understanding the reasons why people throw food away can inform the design of interventions, which are actions that can be implemented by a household, food retailers or governments to reduce food waste in the home. The most common reasons cited when people throw away food are: that too much was cooked, prepared, or served followed by personal preference or perceived inedibility. Therefore, interventions could focus on helping people prepare suitable amounts of food, storing and utilising leftovers, and increasing awareness of what food is edible. Additionally, food which smelled or looked off or was past the date on the label are also common reasons and can both be considered as food which was not used in time. Enabling households to only buy what they need could therefore reduce food waste.

As well as these ‘immediate’ reasons for throwing away food, there are deeper root causes contributing to food waste including: comparatively little time devoted to food-related activities, the low price of food by historical standards, the low awareness of food waste and its impacts within society.

The graph below shows that fresh vegetables and salads are often wasted due to personal preferences, while meals (both homemade and pre-prepared) are frequently wasted because too much was served.