Best before end throw away facts

Following on from our last post we have further facts as to why the environment secretary is so desperately trying to reduce the amount of perfectly good edible food we throw into our bins every day.

• 5 million potatoes
• 4.4 million whole apples
• One million loaves of bread
• One million slices of ham

The total amount is a mind boggling £10 billion every single year!

The Food Standards Agency believes that under European law use-by dates were still required, so the key seems to be arming consumers with more knowledge so they can make better informed decisions about what foods are OK to use after their use-by date and which foods are not.

Among the plans suggested by the Government yesterday include the following:

• To report supermarkets that use "excessive" packaging to Trading Standards.
• Retailers will be asked to use more recycled material and provide smaller portions to stop single people having to buy too much
• Recycling rates will be given a boost by collecting more bottles and tins from pubs, clubs and restaurants and providing "on-the-go" recycling points at airports or street corners for people to put in newspapers and plastic bottles.
• Councils will be encouraged to start collecting more materials for recycling, for example different plastics other than plastic bottles