Brown urges prudence in the pantry
Updated on 07 July 2008
Families have been urged by the Prime Minister to think before they buy food - as research found British households are throwing away hundreds of pounds worth every year.
Gordon Brown said "unnecessary" purchases were contributing to price hikes that have left many people struggling to pay bills. Waste could be reduced by storing fruit and vegetables better to stop them going off, and planning meals so goods are used up rather than ditched.
Mr Brown's call for prudent eating came as a joint report from the US government and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development warned that world food prices will rise 5% this year - and keep climbing for a decade.
A wide-ranging study by the Cabinet Office, published on Monday, has also found that the average UK household now spends 9% of their income on food.
But there is a significant gap between the poorest tenth of the population, who lay out 15%, and the wealthiest tenth who pay 7%. Those on lower incomes also spend proportionally more on staples such as milk, eggs and bread - which have seen the biggest price rises over recent months.
Families in the UK are throwing away a total of 4.1 million tonnes of perfectly good food every year, costing each around £420 annually, according to the 10-month study.
Mr Brown's message as he arrived for a crunch G8 summit in Japan came on a day which will also see a significant report and vote relating to food prices.
The Government is publishing its long-awaited Gallagher report into biofuels on Monday. The research is expected to conclude that biofuels have driven up global food prices, as farmers devote increasing amounts of agricultural land to growing them.
Meanwhile, Sir David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, argued that genetically modified crops held the key to solving the food price problem, it was reported on Monday.
He said changing diets, global warming and pressure on fresh water supplies meant the long-term prospects for producing enough food without new bio-technology were poor, and that GM was the only technology "likely to deliver" the increases in food supplies needed. Ordinary plant breeding programmes could not produce varieties quickly enough, he added.
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