In poor shape – the UK’s policy on food waste

THE UK throws away 4.5million tons of fruit and vegetables every year because they are the wrong shape or size, a study has revealed.

More than a third of farmed fruit and veg never makes it onto shop shelves because they do not meet standards expected by consumers and supermarkets.

Scientists blamed EU regulation for focusing too much on the aesthetics of food, suggesting Brexit is an opportunity to cut the ‘shocking’ waste. They estimate more than 50million tons of fresh produce grown across Europe is discarded annually – when 10 per cent of the world’s population suffers chronic hunger.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh examined how much food is discarded within the European Economic Area each year before it reaches the point of sale. Stephen Porter, one of the authors, said: ‘The use of aesthetics for classifying and accepting fresh food for sale and consumption is built into EU food quality standards and regulations.

‘There is nothing to do with nutritional quality within those regulations. They assume they are fit to eat, therefore it’s not a food safety regulation, it’s very much on quality from a visual perspective.

‘Encouraging people to be less picky about how their fruit and vegetables look could go a long way to cutting waste.’

While some of the rejected food may be used for animal feed, a lot is ploughed back into fields, according to the study in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Professor David Reay of the university’s School of Geosciences said: ‘The scale of food wasted when it is perfectly safe to eat is shocking when one-tenth of the world’s population is perpetually underfed.’