A weekly food shop provides us with all the essentials for the week ahead but shopping in supermarkets can lead to brits being persuaded to buy unnecessary items.
Do you stick to your shopping list or are you easily swayed by offers? Sometimes, buying too much food can lead to lots of it going to waste while also meaning you’re effectively also throwing money away.
Too Good To Go, an app which helps Brits buy food from restaurants and cafes that would otherwise be thrown away for a small cost, has shared the three most wasted foods in the UK.
Top 3 most wasted foods in the UK
Too Good To Go says that potatoes, homemade and pre-made meals and bread are the three things that are wasted the most in households across the UK.
Bread is one of the UK’s most wasted foods (Image: Getty) Data from WRAP (in 2023) showed that 2.9 million whole potatoes are thrown away in the UK every day.
Plus, approximately 42 million tonnes of food is bought annually in the UK but one-quarter of this is wasted – this is the equivalent of £6.6 billion every year.
The main reason given for throwing away food is because it’s ‘not used in time’.
Sophie Trueman, UK Country Director at Too Good To Go, has shared some top tips to help save these commonly wasted foods from the rubbish bin.
How to make potatoes last longer
To make your fresh potatoes last longer, Sophie advises keeping them in a cool, dry and dark place and avoiding storing them near onions or bananas.
This is because onions can make root vegetables go bad quickly so it’s better to keep potatoes alongside things like pumpkins or squash in a cool, dark place to preserve freshness. Often putting them in a paper bag works well.
Sophie has also reminded homeowners that they can use leftover mashed potato to make a mashed potato pie with some leftover vegetables.
Homemade and pre-prepared meals are also among the most wasted foods in the UK. Sophie says a good way to avoid wasting leftovers from dinner is to freeze them rather than let them wither in the fridge.
She said: “Virtually anything can be frozen if you don’t think you’re going to be able to eat it in time.”
You can also adapt some dinners so they can be used again for another dish. Sophie said: “For example, you can change a classic bolognese sauce into a chilli con carne, meat pie or even a lasagne.
“Or why not try to plan a ‘potluck dinner’ once a week? Bring out all your leftover portions from the week and share with your housemates, family or friends for a fun DIY, mezze-style dinner.”
The equivalent of 1.3 million loaves of bread are thrown away every day in the UK, often due to incorrect storage.
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Best way to store bread to extend its shelf life
Cloth bags are ideal for storing bread as they help maintain its properties and prevent it from drying out, especially if you add a piece of potato to the bag.
Freshly made bread should not be stored in airtight bags to allow it to breathe and stay as fresh as possible – instead, use a bread basket or cloth bag to cool it at room temperature.
For sliced bread, store it in the fridge to extend its shelf life and always check its condition before eating.