Wasteful Brits: Throw away 1/3 of all Food

Wasteful Brits: Throw away 1/3 of all Food

www.breitbart.com

British consumers throw out a third of all food bought, worth some 10 billion pounds (12.7 million euros, 19.5 million dollars), a study showed Thursday.
The average household throws food worth 420 pounds each year into the waste bin, rising to 610 pounds for those with children, said the study by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap).

This includes 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots, 5,500 whole chickens and 440,000 ready meals, it said

(visit the link for the full news article)

Like I've said many times, every country has "skeletons in their closet". So, while many in Europe and elsewhere would love to target the U.S. for its role in global consumption, better check their own cupboards first.

www.breitbart.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This article misses out some key points from the survey done and also incorrectly quotes the conversion rate between the pound/Euro and pound/dollar. If it is to be believed, it is apparently £787 to the Euro and £512 to the US$. Not quite the real exchange rate, but hey ho...

This survey only looked at food waste from 2,000 households and extrapolated that to a population of 60,000,000. I know that myself, my friends and family don't throw away anywhere near what this survey suggests we do, so it is wrong to insinuate that it is so. I don't hold much faith in surveys that are this small, to be honest.

Was the sample even scientific?

Nope, is the answer. They just went door to door in a small selection of local councils dotted around England and Wales.

Here is a link to the full 237 page PDF report

Also, the article neglects to mention that a significant portion of the food thrown out has exceeded it's use by date (around 50%). These dates are some of the strictest known and far in excess of what is allowed in the US or elsewhere, resulting in food that is deemed unsafe being disposed of.

Apparently, the USA wastes fully 1/2 of it's food, so Centurion, your attempt to shift blame is somewhat baseless and hypocritical

Lastly, different areas consume different amounts, different foods and have different ways of dealing with the waste. Some areas will compost or otherwise deal with food waste, others will not. So it's environmental impact as suggested by this survey is questionable.

reply to post by centurion1211


with a population of 71+ million
compared to 300+ million who wastes up to 50%

better look at your own backyard first before trying to take a dig over here

www.foodnavigator-usa.com...

26-Nov-2004 - As the US celebrated Thanksgiving, a new study revealed that almost half the food in the country goes to waste - a statistic that should alarm an industry that is struggling to achieve greater efficiency in order to salvage profits.
The new study, from the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, indicates that a shocking forty to fifty per cent of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten.

Timothy Jones, an anthropologist at the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, has spent the last 10 years measuring food loss, including the last eight under a grant from the US department of agriculture (USDA). Jones started examining practices in farms and orchards, before going onto food production, retail, consumption and waste disposal.

www.ens-newswire.com...

He has learned that many tons of edible food are landfilled that could feed people who need it, and he calculated that if the rate of loss was even partially corrected, U.S. consumers and corporations could save tens of billions of dollars every year.

Last year, as part of his research, Jones and his students analyzed the garbage of 200 American families in Arizona and Delaware to learn how much edible or once edible food gets thrown out each day.

more sites

www.google.co.uk...

There is also another distinction to be made.

Is it better to throw away unwanted food, or to consume it and become rampantly obese?

Best solution = dont buy food you dont need. With food prices skyrocketing, I think people will start to look more closely at what they need and buy according.

Another score for the free market forces

When I was a kid we used to have things in our fridge for ages that we are now told to eat within hours. Nowadays use by dates are getting lower and lower, If I buy a packet of something like cooked meat for sandwiches it says to use it within 48 hours of opening. A block of cheese... consume within 4 days! when I was a kid we just cut around the nasty bits.

Are supermarkets just ripping it now by printing ridiculously low use by dates so we consume ans waste more or are the guys in the food science dept. getting better at understanding how bacteria forms on food. I hate throwing things out but I dont want to risk my kids health by going past use by dates even by a day or two.

Originally posted by centurion1211


Like I've said many times, every country has "skeletons in their closet". So, while many in Europe and elsewhere would love to target the U.S. for its role in global consumption, better check their own cupboards first.

www.breitbart.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

True. But what this story fails to mention is that much of the 'fresh' food purchased in british supermarkets is nearly rotten when you buy it! How do I know? I visit my relatives there now and then. It's unreal the c*ap they sell people over there - it's stuff we would feed to our livestock - maybe....

J.

you guys are funny with your bantering back and forth across the pond.

Of course 1/3 of British food is wasted. Have you ever eaten British cuisine? I would throw away a whole lot more than that!!!



Seriously, i agree. 2000 is a poor sample to extrapolate from. This study is bunk.

We waste probably about that much, too. The buffet lifestyle helps drive that.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Don't like the survey sample size? Well, that's a bit like "shooting the messenger", don't you think? They (often quite accurately) decide who's going to win elections over here with smaller poll sample sizes than that and as someone pointed out, we have a lot more people.

The really funny thing is the number of people on this thread that can freely dish out the U.S. bashing on just about any subject, but look at you when someone points out something you, perhaps, would rather not have published about the UK.

No, change that. It's not funny. The real definition would be hypocrisy.

[edit on 5/8/2008 by centurion1211]

reply to post by centurion1211


no need to question my patriotism, sir. I AM Texan, after all.

I could care less about England and its wastefulness.

But i will say that if we want America to quit being recieved so poorly, we should elect people who will not enact policies that equate to us holding much of the world down with a boot to the neck. We tend to put "American interests" ahead of human interests a little too often.


Regardless, no, we do not deserve a bad rep. But living in a buffet culture leads to waste.

And 2000 is a poor representation of 60mil. 1% minimum sample size. That is the benchmark my industry uses for statistical analysis. If this is a truly scientific test, worthy of further scrutiny, i am sure they will seek verification of their data via independantly run further survey's?

I should also add that, from my perspective, i am more scientifically minded than politically minded. My politics are personal, and don't run very deep, honestly. I don't have time for baby kissers, and prefer something more truthful and substantial.

This is not a study. It is the equivalent of "Indiadaily" until there is further verficiation.

it would seem to be an attempt to smear another nation. but i am not very politically minded.

Anyway who are we to talk about waste here in the USA, sheez according to my favorite Seinfeld episode the homeless here won't even eat muffins without the tops!!!

spelling edit

[edit on 8-5-2008 by interestedalways]

Originally posted by interestedalways
Anyway who are we to talk about waste here in the USA, sheez according to my favorite Seinfeld episode the homeless here won't even eat muffins without the tops!!!

spelling edit

[edit on 8-5-2008 by interestedalways]

Of course, you actually realize that your favorite Seinfeld episode was a sitcom and not a documentary - at least I hope you do. If you don't know the difference, then I submit that it is people that think as you do that are the real problem.

It really is important to be able to separate comedy television from reality ...

reply to post by centurion1211


And what was the science use to arrive at these numbers? I just find this hard to believe, that as a regular practice most Brit families would throw out food on a reg basis. No I did not read the article. Sometimes the source is enough for me to debunk an issue.

[edit on 9-5-2008 by space cadet]

Speaking as someone living in England - there's no way my house throws that much away. Admittedly, I'm vegan, so don't have to worry about meat or dairy turning, but I menu plan before shopping and try to waste as little as possible. Food here is expensive (especially on a student budget) - it would be madness to bin it the way this study claims we do!

In fact, I don't know anyone who bins as much as this. My food budget is £50 (approx. $100) a week for two people. I'd have to spend an extra £25 (or a good night in the pub) if I wanted to be this wasteful.

Lol here we have a thread talking about how much food items these countries waste and here we have another thread discussing about BUSH BLAMES India for rising food prices

reply to post by centurion1211


Well, can you blame them? Ever had British food?

reply to post by jsobecky


I have British food every day - that's why I never throw any food away

(well, maybe the odd bit of stale bread now and then)

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by centurion1211

 

And what was the science use to arrive at these numbers? I just find this hard to believe, that as a regular practice most Brit families would throw out food on a reg basis. No I did not read the article. Sometimes the source is enough for me to debunk an issue.

[edit on 9-5-2008 by space cadet]

As I mentioned earlier, polling has become pretty sophisticated these days. Unlike the "logic" used by another poster that basically said they're a vegan, so this can't be true. Only if most people in the UK were vegans could that kind of logic have a leg to stand on.

The real question should be, what if it is true? What should the Brits be doing about it? In like fashion, many say we've should spend trillions of dollars and dramitically alter our lifestyles because of something called global warming - when nothing has shown that humans have either caused the warming, or more importantly, are capable of doing anything to stop it.

So, it sounds like the people of the UK need to do several things to halt this terrible waste of the planet's resources. I'm going to suggest that they pass laws requiring citizens to buy and maintain refrigeration equipment for their homes - like other developed countries do. No more shopping daily for food, you have to buy in quantity and be able to store the food for a period of time. Next, taxes should be raised on garbage collection and the billing changed to charging by weight to help discourage this wanton throwing away of food.

Now these are excellent suggestions for helping the people of the UK cope with this wasteful situation. My last question is - how does it feel to have someone from another country start telling you how you need to act and what you need to do? Enjoying this? Want some more? No to both questions? Well, think about that the next time you want to pick up your keyboard to bash the U.S. or any other country. Same goes for the rest of the Europeans and Asians. Your turn is just another news article away ...

[edit on 5/9/2008 by centurion1211]

reply to post by centurion1211


Centurion, your title was extremely misleading.

That only surveyed 0.04% of the English population. They cannot speak for England as a whole.

Saying all Brits throw away 1/3 of food is just plain sensationalism and misrepresentation. How do you know how the rest of Britain eats and what they throw away?

Eating habits vary greatly from region to region. Britain is a highly decentralized nation, if they had bothered to survey some of the more rural areas & townships they would have found the complete opposite.

Btw, America is not one to talk for wasting resources.

You guys have 5% of the world's population yet you consume 26% of all the total energy generated, while developing nations consume a meager 30%.
The US Citizen consumes 9 times more electricity than the rest of the world, while 3 billion people don't even have power.
You emit more C02 than anyone else and you refuse to even do something about it.
You need to prioritize your grievances here.

I think Global Warming and pollution related illnesses are a far bigger concern than British people throwing out their food.

Don't bring up that "holier-than-thou" attitude and make America look like a shining example of efficiency when it's anything but...
Maybe it would do Americans some good to throw out some food once in a while too, could really help cut down on that obesity epidemic eh?

[edit on 9/5/08 by The Godfather of Conspira]