Industry News
Exclusive survey for FPJ Live lifts the lid on shopper attitudes to food waste, supermarkets, GM and much more
Two-thirds of shoppers are apprehensive about fresh produce waste – but they appear to be underestimating the scale of the problem.
Exclusive new research by England Marketing, to be revealed at FPJ Live in Solihull on 30 April, indicates that some 66% of consumers are worried about the level of fresh produce that is thrown away either in the home or by supermarkets. Only 25% said they were unconcerned.
Food waste has shot to the top of the agenda after Tesco revealed last October that a quarter of all the grapes it sells and as much as 40% of apples are thrown away.
And England Marketing’s research, which covered a large representative sample of consumers and different age groups across the country, suggests shoppers may be underestimating how much is wasted. Asked to estimate how much fresh produce they throw away, 21% said none, 28% said 10% and 15% throw away a fifth.
A further fifth believe they waste half or more of all the fresh produce they buy.
Respondents were also asked what they thought should be done with wasted fresh produce. Comments included: ‘Put it into compost bins or in the green bin’; ‘Feed it to animals’; ‘People need to be less neurotic about sell-by/eat-by dates’; ‘It should be used for compost or for gardening’; ‘Give it to food banks’; and ‘Send it to homeless people.’
Jan England, managing director of England Marketing, said the results showed consumers should “eat with their eyes more” rather than fretting over use-by dates on pack. “There is a lot of confusion over sell-by and use-by dates,” she explained.
“People are perceiving produce to have gone bad when it hasn’t and that is leading to higher amounts of waste. And they may be underestimating how much they are wasting.” The food waste results form just one area covered by one of the most extensive pieces of consumer research in the fresh produce category in recent years. The survey also asked shoppers about their attitudes to individual supermarkets, price promotions, migrant labour, packaging, GM and much more.
Supermarkets have been urged to end buy one get one free (BOGOF) deals to cut “morally repugnant” food waste.
A report by the House of Lords European Union Committee said that 15 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year.
And it urged retailers to behave more responsibly with farmers and avoid cancelling orders at the last minute.
However, the British Retail Consortium told the BBC that the report “had not appreciated what is already happening”.
In the report, the peers also criticised the EU’s “fragmented and untargeted” attempts to tackle the problem.
The committee is calling for more surplus food to be passed to charities and food banks.
The report said retailers were able to pass on food waste “from the store to the household” by the use of special offers such as BOGOF deals.
Committee chair Baroness Scott, said: “Not only is food waste morally repugnant, but it has serious economic and environmental implications.
“The fact that 90 million tonnes of food is wasted across the EU each year shows the extent of the problem and explains why we are calling for urgent action.”
The committee’s demands include a five-year plan by the European Commission to reduce waste across the EU.
The amount of food discarded by consumers in industrialised nations is equivalent to nearly the entire level of net food production of sub-Saharan Africa, the committee noted.