The Information: Food and drink waste

Britain is a land of leftovers. An estimated eight million tonnes of food and drink are wasted each year in the UK – five million tonnes of which could have been avoided. The biggest culprits are those living alone: single-person households waste more than families, either by not using up food, or by overestimating portions.

Bread is the most wasted foodstuff – 32 per cent ends up in the kitchen bin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we are loath to waste alcohol – just 6 per cent goes down the drain.

According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, our avoidable waste as a nation is worth £12bn a year, £480 per year for the average household – around 15 per cent of the shopping budget.

There’s an environmental cost, too. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with this waste is equivalent to 20 million tonnes of CO2 a year – comparable with everyone in Britain taking an annual return flight from London to Vienna.

To put this all in perspective, the food and drink we wasted unnecessarily in 2009 could – according to UN figures – have fed 35 million flood victims in Pakistan for a year.

Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs