Watch your waste! £500 a year of food in the bin
DAIRY products top the list of nearly £500 worth of food the typical Briton throws away every year.
We spend £61 a week on food and drink on average, but £9 of that will end up in the bin after going out of date, a study found.
One in three people polled said milk was the product that most often went to waste, followed by other dairy such as yogurt, butter and cheese.
But more than a third of Britons were willing to risk biting into a product past its best-before date.
And one in five people were happy to eat an item which has passed its use-by date.
Cheese was judged safe to eat 10 days on from its use-by date, and milk was given a grace period of five days.
A pot of yogurt was still deemed good to go six days after its time had come.
And biscuits, soft drinks and condiments were all considered safe to consume for a further two weeks.
When it came to correct food storage, three in five people thought the rightful home of a carton of eggs was in the fridge, while one in seven opted to keep them in the cupboard or on the side. More than a third liked chocolate refrigerated, compared with 45 per cent who preferred it at room temperature. When it came to bread, 42 per cent said they left their loaf to its own devices in the cupboard, and one in four keeps it on the worktop.
And three in 10 flirted with disaster by keeping mayonnaise outside a refrigerated environment. Storing it in the wrong place was identified as the reason food is most likely to go off before its time, followed by exposure to heat and being kept in damaged or open packaging.
More than two-thirds of people did not know exposure to a light source can cause certain foods and packaging to deteriorate faster.
And only one in 10 of 2,000 Britons quizzed, via OnePoll, identified light-protected packaging as an effective way to keep products fresh up to their use-by date.
Divya Chopra, chief of light protection experts Noluma, which commissioned the research, said: “With each Briton throwing away an estimated £500 a year in out-ofdate food as a result of inadequate packaging or storage, it is clear the issue has significant financial implications.This can be reduced through consumer education, protection from indoor light damage, and better packaging.”
Mr Chopra added: “We think Brits should also be made aware of some of the other factors which can lead their favourite foods and beverages to sour before they can be used, such as the surprising impact of indoor light on certain products, including LED, fluorescent and refrigerator lights. Correct storage and light-protected packaging is important, to prevent foods from going off sooner than we expect.
“Certification of light-protection is the only way for consumers to be assured that the produce they are buying is being light-protected by the highest industry standards.”