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In 2015, people in the UK threw away a huge amount of food as food waste - its value is estimated at 13 billion pounds (about 15.8 billion USD).

The resulting statistics show that every British household sent £470 worth of food to the basket in a year that could be eaten. This food waste produced around 19 million tons of greenhouse gases in total: avoiding such a waste of money would be equivalent to taking 1/4 of the UK's cars off the road. All of this is happening in spite of efforts to reduce food waste in the United Kingdom, along the entire food chain (from production to shops and consumers themselves*). If in 2012 the British threw away 7 million tons of food, then in 2015 the figure rose to 7.3 million tons. Of all this food wasted, about 4.4 million tons (compared to 4.2 tons in 2012) are categorized as preventable; “at some point edible” (before being sent to a landfill).

Among the reasons for the increase in the amount of food thrown away in the UK are the decrease in its cost and the growth in income of the population. Campaigns to raise awareness of citizens about food waste began a long time ago and bore fruit in 2012. Then, compared with 2007, the amount of food thrown away decreased by 15% (preventable, i.e. edible - by 21%). But this was facilitated not only by social actions, but also by rising prices for products, as well as changes in the system for marking the expiration date.

It is interesting that in the same 2012, according to the IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) report, three-quarters (!) of vegetables grown in the UK were not eaten: a huge part of them remained in the fields or were rejected by supermarkets due to insufficiently beautiful presentation .

There are, however, more pleasant statistics in the United Kingdom: to date, Wales has reduced its food waste (since 2009) by 12%. Apparently, this was facilitated by the local administration and the greater availability of special collectors of such waste.

* In September 2016, was reported to have topped The Grocer's UK Food Waste Management Index. Tesco has set itself the ambitious goal of being completely edible food waste-free by the end of 2017. To achieve this, the company was one of the first to introduce special rules for working with products and taking into account their expiration date in all stores and the supply chain, and also decided to publish open statistics on the results obtained annually. Also in the top three of The Grocer's ranking were Sainsbury and M&S.

See also anekdotig:

• News: " Russians consider the naturalness of products, but are not ready to pay extra for reducing environmental damage " (May 12, 2016)
• Newsletter: " Tesco Supermarket Chain Stops Selling Baby Sugary Drinks " (August 11, 2015)

• Article: How to Reduce Your Food Waste? »
• Article: " Food that will never be eaten ."
• Article: " How to properly store food ."
• Video: " Tristram Stewart: Outrageous Food Waste Statistics ".
• Tip: " Buy local food " (November 9, 2015)
• Advice: " Don't Buy Extra Food " (September 28, 2015)