Wasting Food Each year over 4 million Christmas dinners are thrown away in the UK alone; 263,000 turkeys, 7.5 million mince pies, 740,000 slices of Christmas pudding, 17.2 million Brussel sprouts, 11.9 million carrots and 11.3 million roast potatoes. This massive waste of food doesn’t only happen around Christmas time. Annually, the UK wastes 7 million tonnes of food and drink and almost 50% of this comes from our homes, more than half of this food was edible. The waste of good food and drink is associated with 4% or the UK’s total water footprint. This waste of food costs the average household £470 a year and £700 for a family with children.
This does not only affect the amount of money wasted but it is also negatively effects the environment as it’s not only the food which is wasted, it also the transportation, packaging, work and effort which went into producing the food. We throw away more food than from our homes than packaging in the UK every year. If everyone stopped wasting food then it could result in taking 1 in 4 cars off the road. It could also reduce the amount of litter which is seen on our streets today.
There are many reasons as to why we waste so much food but the main two are that we cook too much food so the remaining food that is not eaten is thrown away or we don’t use the food we buy in time so it is not safe to eat anymore. However, there are ways to stop wasting food. We could try not to overcook, we could try new recipes and try to buy the right amount of food. Also, we could stop looking at the sell by dates of food as it is not the exact time a food will go off, if it looks and smells fine it should be good to eat. Bananas are going bad? You could freeze them to keep them longer and then later make banana bread or a smoothie. If you have waste fruit or vegetables you could put it into a compost heap.
By Izabella Hill Gumley House Convent School
