Unloved takeaway salad bags ‘add to waste mountain’

Most of the soggy lettuce, onion and tomato ends up straight in the bin after delivery, a survey shows

IT HAS often been crowned the nation’s favourite food, but there is one part of the takeaway curry that most consumers can’t get along with: the salad.

The small plastic bags, usually containing wilted lettuce, slightly soggy tomato and chopped-up onion with a wrinkly wedge of lemon thrown in for good measure, are being thrown straight in the bin, adding thousands of tons of food waste to landfills each year.

According to a survey that examined the habits of 3,500 takeaway custom- ers across the UK, 99 per cent of the bagged salads ended up largely unopened or straight in the bin.

The research, carried out by Businesswaste.co.uk, found that 94 per cent of the salads were put straight in the bin after delivery, one per cent made it into the fridge, only to be thrown away later, and the rest were left in the shop or given back to the delivery driver. Many customers said they were put off by the stringy appearance of the salad, while others stated that the plastic bag made the food look unhygienic. There were also concerns that the salad may potentially contain bacteria from the takeaway outlet because it was uncooked. One customer said: “Who wants a salad at pub closing time? Nobody, that’s who.”

Mark Hall, spokesman for Businesswaste.co.uk, said: “We tried to find out who eats these salads, and we found literally nobody prepared to confess that they did. In our opinion, they’re nothing but a huge waste of food. Thousands of tons going to waste.”

During the study it was found that the bins near takeaway outlets were also overflowing with the discarded salad portions.

Mr Hall added: “A plastic bag is probably not the best way to present a salad, to be honest. Customers have a mental image of the food being stuffed in there by bare hand, which it most certainly isn’t. But it’s a hard image for most people to shake.”

Mr Hall said takeaway outlets could save money and cut waste by simply asking customers if they wanted salad.

According to the European Environment Agency other big causes of food waste can be attributed to restaurants not offering varying portion sizes or allowing leftovers to be taken home.

In October it was revealed that Londoners wasted more food than anybody else in the UK. Food tech firm It’s Fresh! showed 28 per cent of the capital’s residents threw out at least a tenth of their weekly fruit and veg, compared with 22 per cent across the country.