The amount of food wasted by families across Britain could be slashed by almost 50 per cent, equivalent to three million tonnes of household waste per year, through better meal planning and by eating more frozen food, according to research from a leading food industry academic.
On the back of findings released by WRAP last week, which found that UK households are throwing away a million tonnes of unopened food a year, a ground-breaking paper published by global publisher, Emerald Group Publishing, in the British Food Journal, identifies frozen food as a significant solution to the UK’s six million tonne household waste mountain.
The research, written by Dr Wayne Martindale of Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University, shows that the frozen food generates 47 per cent less food waste compared to ambient and chilled food consumed in the home.
The research also found that households who include more frozen foods in their weekly meal planning could save around £250 per year.
Dr Martindale’s research also discovered that greenhouse gas emissions could also be reduced by 2.4m tonnes a year if households incorporated frozen foods into smarter meal planning.
The Sheffield Hallam University research used consumer research panels in its own purpose-built sensory testing labs to reveal that UK households bin almost twice as much fresh food as they do frozen, with the elderly and people under 25 among those producing the most waste.
The research project has engaged the frozen food manufacturing industry, working with some of Europe’s biggest food brands such as Iglo Group, parent company of Birds Eye, to gain industry support for the findings.
The findings will be utilised by food manufacturers to design products in a smarter way for meal planning so that the customer experience is improved and waste is reduced.
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