Environment

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) hopes to spark "a major debate on the way food is packaged" after revealing that the UK throws away £10bn of consumable food every year.

Wrap's The Food We Waste report, published today (8 May), showed that 60% of the edible food waste had not been used or touched, and £1bn worth of food had not passed its sell-by date.

Wrap chief executive Liz Goodwin was "shocked by the cost of food waste at a time or rising food prices".

"I believe this report will spark a major debate about the way food is packaged, sold, stored at home and then collected when it is thrown out," she added.

The average household disposes of £420 of good food each year, rising to £610 for families with children.

Wrap said stopping the waste of good food would save the equivalent of 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted – the same as taking one in every five cars off the road.

Environment minister Joan Ruddock said preventing waste "had to remain a top priority".

"This is costing consumers three times over. Not only do they pay hard-earned money for food they don't eat, there is also the cost of dealing with the waste.

"And there are climate change costs of growing, processing, packaging, transporting and refrigerating food that ends up in the bin."

Wrap interviewed 2,715 households in England and Wales, of which 2,138 had their waste collected for analysis.

The focus of the research was the amount and type of waste produced, although Wrap also linked this to attitudes to waste and disposal facilities.