How much food do you waste?

This is a question we have all been more inclined to ask as the cost of living crisis hit, and while none of us do it deliberately, it’s a reality for most of us.

Our initial consideration may be about our finances, however, it's not a bad thing for the environment too.

At the beginning of March we supported Food Waste Action Week, with the aim of encouraging people to just buy what they needed and to make the most of what they have by batch cooking or using leftovers, rather than throwing it away.

Research by WRAP shows that 70 per cent of the food that is wasted in the UK is wasted by people in their homes - equating to 4.5 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten being thrown away every year.

As well as the money we are wasting on food we are not eating, the environmental impact caused by food going to waste is huge.

Harmful greenhouse gases are created by producing food that isn’t used and food waste alone generates about eight per cent to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

And that's not only the food rotting in landfill, but also the resources it takes to get that food to our plates, from the land used for farming, the water used for feeding and energy used to harvest, package and transport the goods to the supermarket shelves, not to mention the cooking.

And food packaging is another issue that contributes to our food waste.

Potatoes, apples, bananas, carrots and onions are the top five most wasted fruit and vegetables in the UK households – all often sold in plastic packaging, rather than loose, preventing us from buying the quantities we need.

Research by Everday Plastic estimates selling these five items without plastic wrapping or bags would prevent an estimated 1.7 billion pieces of plastic packaging from being thrown away every year.

As well as avoiding more than 77,000 tonnes of food waste by allowing people to buy what they need.

Not only is this great for the planet, it could also save shoppers a combined total of over £85m per year in uneaten food.

So to help reduce your food waste, and save some money you can sign the www.ChooseLoose.org petition to help put pressure on our supermarkets to stop selling fruit and vegetables packaged and let us choose loose.