1. The problem of food waste Andrew Parry (WRAP)
Firstly I would like to thank the organisers for the opportunity to present to you today, and share some insights from our work in the UK.

2. What I’ll cover….
Food waste in the UK
How extending product life could help
Existing and future opportunities
Summary

3. Food waste arising in the UK
Around 15 mt arising each year
Worth ca £17 billion
>30 mt CO2e
Household = ca 50% of the total, most could be avoided:
£680 per average family
17 billion “5 a day” portions
16% of calories and 23% of fibre in food purchased are “lost” due to waste
Total food waste arisings in the UK amount to at least 15mt, which is the equivalent of a third of all food purchased (42mt), with a value of around €20 billion. This food waste is associated with at least 30mt of CO2e (total is around 166mt, therefore at least 18% of the total).
Around 50% of this is generated in households. Of this 7.2 Mt over 4mt (>60%) is still being sent to landfill. The majority of household food waste could have been avoided, and this has an annual retail value of at least €14 billion (€800 for the average family, €560 for the average hh), is associated with at least 17mt of CO2e (the same as that produced by 1 in 5 cars on UK roads) and 4% of the total UK water footprint. There are also significant nutritional losses associated with this food waste, in terms of portions of fresh fruit & vegetables bought but not consumed (up to 25%) and other components of the diet such as fibre and obviously overall calories.
Our focus to date has primarily been on reducing food waste generated in the home, as that makes up the single largest proportion of food waste arisings.
New figures: 7.2 mt hh, 3.9mt manufacturing, 0.4mt retail, 1.0mt HaFS, 2.9 mt agriculture

4. Cooked, prepared or served too much
Household food waste
Avoidable food & drink
(£12 billion)
Not used in time
(ca. £6.7 billion)
Cooked, prepared or served too much
(ca. £4.8 billion)
So what is the size of the opportunity. Well you’ve seen this slide before, the £6.7 bn worth of food thrown away due to being not used in time, and of this around £2 bn from packs opened but not finished. We’ve talked about how improved labelling and guidance can help reduce this, but giving consumers longer to eat products bought could also make a significant difference.

5. Food type (avoidable; ‘not used in time’; selection)
Annual weight of waste in UK (tonnes / year)
Annual cost of avoidable waste (£ million) 1
Standard bread
480,000
570 2
Milk
200,000
160 3
Potato (fresh)
180,000
150 4
Apple
170,000
280 6
Banana
78,000 94 7
Yoghurt / yoghurt drink
74,000
190 8
Fruit juice & smoothies
66,000 80 9
Pork / ham / bacon
320 10
Speciality bread
59,000
220 11
Tomato
55,000
100 14
Cakes etc
47,000
140 15
Oranges
46,000 68 16
Poultry
42,000 17
Carrot
40,000 31 18
Soft / berry fruit
38,000 19
Stone fruit
37,000
Note – ‘missing’ ones include home made meals, drinks

6. Reasons stated for throwing away food
Data from a 2011 WRAP report, based on diary research. Main reasons are around food going off (or being perceived to be off), going past the date label or being open too long. Reasons vary by product, for milk for e.g. it’s 50:50 going past the date and smelling off, fresh meat & fish primarily about the date label, 80% going off for fresh produce and in the case of drinks (including fruit juices and smoothies), cooking sauces and tinned food, the most common reason for disposal was that they had been open too long. 6

7. Retail Supply Chain The Individual Influences: Product Retail
Cultural, Governmental, Demographic, Technological, Economic, Industrial
Retail Supply Chain
The Individual
Product
Retail
Attitudes
Knowledge & skills related -
Shelf life /
Portioning &
Values
to behaviour
formulation
storage ‘
devices ’
Motivation
Awareness of the issue -
Production methods
Marketing
Habit
Facilities & resources
& location
Price promotions
Packaging
Communications -
Functionality
campaign
Food -
waste specific -
Labelling
behaviours
However, we know through research by ourselves and others that the factors influencing the amount of food thrown away by a household are many and varied, and not just about behaviours and pack sizes. These include economic and cultural factors, characteristics of the food bought, knowledge, attitudes and habits of the individuals within the household, which in turn influence decisions at all stages of the food journey which may ultimately lead to food being wasted.
Intermediate Outcome:
Quantity of household food waste
Final Outcomes:
Environmental and
economic impact of food waste

8. Potential impact of key changes
12-15% of the total – ca 550,000t
Tonnes per year food waste preventable

9. Modelling approach – influence of product life
17%
10% 7%
If you look at the impact of the range observed for standard milk between retailers, 6 to 9 days you can see the significant impact on waste levels, 7 to 17% for single households, more than twice as much waste likely at 6 d, but an even more dramatic effect for larger households, from 2 to 10% waste. So this illustrates that a relatively small change in shelf-life can have a dramatic effect on waste. 2%
6 d
9 d 9

10. What food issues concern consumers?
% of people mentioning (average number of mentions = 4.25

11. Factors influencing choice in store* *

12. Strategies to reduce household food waste
National \ large scale communication
Community engagement & support
Awareness raising & enabling behaviour change
Changes to products, packaging & labelling
Making it easier for consumers to buy the right amount, and use what is bought
All of this research has underpinned the development of our strategy to reduce household food waste.
There are two interrelated elements to this strategy. The first is to engage with consumers to raise awareness and enable people to take action. The second is to work with the food industry to make it easier for consumers to waste less, through changes in the way food is packaged, labeled or sold; for example to increase shelf-life or making it clearer that food can be frozen.
I’ll talk about each of these elements in more detail.

13. Helping consumers to reduce food waste
The three top opportunities were identified as:
Achieve clarity and consistency on food dates
Develop and provide more effective storage guidance
Investigate extending shelf-life through increased use of packaging and food technology
Back in 2008 we held a series of workshops with the food industry, sharing the detailed insights from our research. The top three areas where industry representatives thought they could help were ……..
In 2009 we followed this up with a workshop in conjunction with FSA and Governments, to identify more specific actions.
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

14. Many factors influence “available” product life
Forecasting; ordering & manufacturing flexibility
Transport & storage times
Residence time in-store
Promotions
Manufacture &
setting shelf-life
Distribution
In store
In home
Opened
Raw materials
Formulation & processing
Packaging, MA etc
Approach to setting life (frequency & nature of testing; use of models; guidelines; benchmarking vs others etc)
Historical decisions
Retailer specification
Expected storage conditions (supply chain & in-home)
Brand positioning
Time from store to home
Temperatures
Storage location
Fridge temperatures
Use of packaging etc
We all know that many factors can influence the total and available shelf-life of a product, and this will not be a comprehensive list. I’m going to present some data on available life, and also very preliminary findings from a survey sent to industry by Leatherhead on our behalf. 14

15. Many factors influence “available” product life
Forecasting; ordering & manufacturing flexibility
Transport & storage times
Residence time in-store
Promotions
Manufacture &
setting shelf-life
Distribution
In store
In home
Opened
Raw materials
Formulation & processing
Packaging, MA etc
Approach to setting life (frequency & nature of testing; use of models; guidelines; benchmarking vs others etc)
Historical decisions
Retailer specification
Expected storage conditions (supply chain & in-home)
Brand positioning
Time from store to home
Temperatures
Storage location
Fridge temperatures
Use of packaging etc
We all know that many factors can influence the total and available shelf-life of a product, and this will not be a comprehensive list. I’m going to present some data on available life, and also very preliminary findings from a survey sent to industry by Leatherhead on our behalf. 15

17. Increasing product life is taking place
Asda - Faster Fresh chill chain programme delivered an additional 14,148 days of shelf life to customers across 1,672 products.

18. Variation in “available” product life
Fresh produce (pre-packed, standard)
Mean number
of days
Min
Max
Std.
Deviation
Carrots
4.2 1 8
1.3
Apples
7.0 2 19
2.8
Potatoes
5.1 10
1.6
Data on fresh produce presented slightly differently, illustrating the relatively short available lives, particularly bearing in mind how long these products can be stored for commercially.

19. Summary
Food ‘not used in time’ makes up >50% of household food waste
Increasing product life (without impacting on quality or safety) could deliver significant benefits – across the supply chain
Much is already being done by industry
New research in progress by WRAP, to help identify further opportunities
Need to understand risks & benefits of specific approaches (consumer, commercial, environmental etc) and how they compare (e.g. packaging vs processing solutions)

20. Thank you Please contact me on: andrew. parry@wrap. org
Thank you Please contact me on: if you have any further questions