A Mountain of Wasted Food

THIS picture gives a sense of the mountain of food chucked away by Britain’s supermarkets every day. From loaves of bread to ready meals and fruit, it’s estimated the major stores dump pounds 2.44bn worth of food every year that shoppers could be buying. These pictures were taken outside a supermarket in North Tyneside. Many families are already feeling the strain of increased shopping bills and campaigners say more could be done to cut waste and help consumers.

Campaigners WRAP, the Green Party and Friends of the Earth want chains to heavily discount food near its sell-by date, stop over- ordering, slash prices on “ugly” fruit instead of throwing it away, educate customers on how to save cash by wasting less and reduce packaging. Supermarkets are trying to reduce waste. Asda and Sainsbury have set targets to reduce the amount of packaging and the majority of the major supermarkets have signed up to schemes to pass on waste food to those in need. Fareshare Tyneside, based in Newburn, works with supermarkets to save unsold food from the bin and give it to charities and community groups. Paul Clarke, of Fareshare says: “Last month we gave 12 and half tonnes to two projects – food that would have been thrown out.”

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