Your dinner’s in the bin: 28,500 tonnes of food ‘wasted’

Think twice before chucking that wilted lettuce leaf in the bin – you’re adding to a vast food waste mountain, according to Tesco.

The supermarket has compiled figures showing that 68 per cent of all salad sold in bags is wasted – 35 per cent by shoppers in the home. Other products, including bakery items, grapes and apples, are also regularly thrown out.

But it isn’t just blaming picky consumers or obsessing over wonky carrots. Tesco is also taking steps to improve its own record on food waste, admitting that in the first six months of this year, it has already wasted 28,500 tonnes of food in its stores and distribution centres.

We’ve all got a responsibility to tackle food waste and there is no quick-fix single solution. Tesco’s Matt Simister

Tesco found that 40 per cent of apples are wasted, as are just under half of bakery items. A quarter of grapes are wasted between the vine and the fruit bowl, and a fifth of all bananas go uneaten. Some of the waste happens in the field, some in the supermarket, but a lot takes place in the home – a quarter of bakery items are thrown away in people’s houses.

Why Tesco is laying waste to uneaten food

The supermarket said it was now taking steps to deal with its side of the bargain. It plans to end multi-buy deals on large bags of salad and is developing mix-and-match promotions for customers to help them reduce how much they have to throw away. It is also removing ‘display until’ dates from fresh fruit and vegetables, using smaller cases in stores and rearranging 600 in-store bakeries to reduce the amount of bread on display, with the aim of better stock control and less waste.

It is also working with farmers to reduce pests and disease, and plans to share tips with shoppers about using leftover bread.

Tesco tracked 25 best-selling products and combined information with data from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) to give an overall food waste “footprint” for each item. The last figures published by Wrap in 2011 estimate that 15 million tonnes of food waste is generated each year in the UK.

Read more: Why the supermarket secrecy about food waste?

Tesco commercial director of group food Matt Simister said: “We’ve all got a responsibility to tackle food waste and there is no quick-fix single solution. Little changes can make a big difference, like storing fruit and vegetables in the right way.

“Families are wasting an estimated £700 a year and we want to help them keep that money in their pockets, rather than throwing it in the bin.

“We’re playing our part too and making changes to our processes and in store. Ending multi-buy promotions on large packs of bagged salads is one way we can help, but this is just the start and we’ll be reviewing what else we can do. We’re working with our suppliers to try to cut waste at all stages of the journey from farm to fork.”

Tesco is not the first supermarket to admit its food waste figures – Sainsbury’s also does so. In 2012, it admitted to Channel 4 News that around 44,000 tonnes of food waste had been generated the previous year – but said none ended in landfill, with edible food going to charity and the rest going to animal organisations or for fertiliser. Tesco also said its waste did not end up in landfill.