Each year UK households throw away 6.4 million tonnes of edible food, the equivalent of 15 billion meals, or enough to feed everyone in the UK three meals a day for 11 weeks.
Each year the average household spends £700 on food they end up throwing away and with the cost of living and food insecurity both rising it is more vital than ever to reduce our food waste as a country.
Best before dates create misleading perceptions concerning the safety of food products, leading to food waste and wasted household income. Sainsbury’s joined a growing list of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains in August 2022 by removing best before labels from 100 products in an effort to reduce the amount of food waste.
Best before dates are an indicator of food quality, whereas use by dates are an indicator of food safety. However many people believe that both indicate food safety and this misperception is a leading cause of food waste. For example, UK households throw away 720 million eggs each year because they have passed their best before date, not because they are necessarily unsafe to eat.
Why is food waste a problem?
Aside from the economic impacts, food waste also has massive impacts on climate change because of the amount of energy and resources used in cultivating and transporting food.
If food waste were a country it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after India and China. Reducing food waste is a global issue, not just one for the UK.
It is also important to reduce food waste in the UK as 8.4 million people this UK were classified as in food poverty in April this year.
Keishamaza Rukikaire of the United Nations Environment Programme says ‘Simply put, reducing food lost or wasted means more food for all, less greenhouse gas emissions, less pressure on environment, and increased productivity and economic growth’.
In alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UK has pledged to half its food waste by 2030, which means we need to reduce our annual food waste by 1.8mT.
Sainsbury’s announced that they would remove the best before labels from 100 fresh fruit and vegetable products, which is estimated to help save 11,000 tonnes of food each year.
What else have UK supermarkets done to tackle this problem?
- Tesco – in 2018 they removed the best before labels from 100 products
- Waitrose – In January 2022 they announced they would be scrapping best before labels from 500 products
- M&S – scrapped best before labels from 300 fruit and vegetable products in July 2022
- Asda – have introduced their own ‘guaranteed life’ stickers, which extend past the best before date. This has results in the equivalent of 120,000 meals being redistributed to their charity partners
These changes are definitely a step in the right direction, but have only come about after years of campaigning from NGOs like WRAP and are clearly not enough to help the UK reach its 2030 target. The issue at heart might be one caused by the effects of late stage capitalism, rather than one of careless and wasteful customers.
Best before dates are not a legal requirement for fresh, un-cut fruit and vegetables in the UK – so why do we have them?
Best before dates are decided by food manufacturers, who claim that they exist to help the consumers know when food will taste the best.
The manufactures can put any date on the label, so long as it’s before the food goes bad, and there are very little guidelines in place to prevent this system from being abused.
Their business relies on repeat consumers regularly buying their products – they are not going to complain that the vast majority of people confuse best before dates for expiry dates. Food waste statistics are very well known, and large corporations have done little to minimise food waste and help consumers save money.
In an interview with Vox, journalist and chef Tamar Adler said, “It’s in the general interest of anybody trying to sell anything to continue to perpetuate the illusion that our foods are going bad all the time”.
So, whilst statistics such as ‘UK households throw away 6.4mT of food each year’ are true – is it fair to blame the population, or should more attention be on those who continue to mislead the population in pursuit of profits.
How else do supermarkets waste food?
The aesthetic quality of food products is another reason why supermarkets waste food. Traditionally supermarkets have stocked food that meets a certain aesthetic quality – which over time has led consumers to associate food quality with a certain aesthetic.
Supermarkets are selective, and have strict requirements for different foods which need to be met for the food to be deemed worthy enough to sell. If potato specifications were changed by as little as 2mm then up to 15% of waste could be reduced.
The economic cost to the farmers is massive, some have up to 10 tonnes of food per week rejected because it is deemed too ugly.
Manufacturers, over time, have created and reinforced the connection between food aesthetics and food quality in the consumers minds. Many consumers find it unusual to buy a banana that is too small, or a carrot that is bent rather than straight – even though the quality of product is the same.
As manufacturers continue to try and out sell eachother, they demand higher standards of food aesthetic from farmers. Consumers become accustomed to these high standards, and demand them, which perpetuates the cycle.
Consumer habits and a cultural shift
It appears there are two sides to the problem of food waste – profit hungry manufactures and supermarkets who seem to be unbothered by misperceptions of food quality that they have encouraged, and consumers who perpetuate the problem.
To bring about any meaningful reduction in food waste both need to change. Manufactures must change both their priorities and policies, and have started to do so, but consumer habits and attitudes must also change.
Campaigns such as ‘look, smell, taste, don’t waste’ by Too Good To Go encourage consumers to trust their senses rather than the labels on food. They must learn that aesthetics do not equate to quality and should try and cultivate a culture where they trust their own senses and judgement to determine the quality of food – not blindly trust and follow the information that’s been fed to them.
Too Good To Go is an app which allows customers to buy food at a discount from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants that would otherwise have to be thrown out. Their mission statement is ‘to make sure good food gets eaten, not wasted’.
Also, buying ‘wonky foods’ has recently become a food trend, with small businesses popping up which sell foods rejected by supermarkets (which are of the exact same quality, just not aesthetic enough for them) at a lower price.
The emergence of the ‘wonky food’ trend helps in influencing subtle changes in how consumers judge food and deem it edible or not based on the way it looks.
If consumers change their demands, and settle for ‘ugly’ produce, rather than demanding nothing other than the most perfect looking produce, then the manufacturers will provide that. By buying ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables, and supporting the smaller businesses which sell them, or buying directly from farmers who would otherwise have to waste their produce, then large food manufacturers will be forced to meet this new demand.
Removing best before dates and selling of imperfect fruit and vegetables is definitely a step in the right direction for retailers. However it seems if they really cared about the problem of food waste they would have had the foresight to make these changes years earlier, without eternal pressures from NGOs like WRAP.
Large corporations are not taking as much responsibility as they could, as doing so would dent their profits. It seems the responsibility falls to us, the consumers, to switch our attitudes towards food. We have become too accustomed to throwing out edible food, and must retrain the way we think. It is vital to remind ourselves that aesthetics do not indicate quality and not to blindly trust and follow the information that’s been fed to us. We should cultivate a culture where we trust our own senses and judgement to determine food quality.
Here are some links which you may find useful:
WRAP guidance on best before dates: https://www.givingworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Food-date-labelling-poster.pdf
Impacts of food production on the UKs greenhouse gas emissions – https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/uk-food-system-ghg-emissions
Too Good To Go’s Website:https://toogoodtogo.co.uk/en-gb/
