How the UK can save £7.7bn

And I’m not talking about efficiency savings or spending cuts. To coincide with the launch of the new GNE114610X Beko have released data that says the UK throws away £7.7 billion of food every year - that’s £160 for every adult in the country. If you’re wondering where it all goes the top 10 most commonly wasted foods are as follows;

1. Yoghurts
2. Sandwich meat
3. Lettuce
4. Milk
5. Cucumber
6. Bread
7. Tomatoes
8. Cream
9. Uncooked meat
10. Jars of sauces

If you don’t like the thought of wasting £160 on salad and sandwich meat then you’re not alone. We’ve compiled a list of our top tips to stop waste. It was originally a lot longer and included three different recipes for bread and butter pudding but for the sake of space we’ve cut it down to four, more general tips.

Buy what you need – One in ten of us have thrown out food that was a year out of date and 7% have discarded food three years past its best before. If you only buy what you will eat then you’re partway towards reducing waste. Good advice is to never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry (because you’re more vulnerable to impulse buying), to write a list and stick to it or to price your shopping up online and only take enough cash to buy what you need.

Cook smart – Planning out a weekly menu, or even having a rough idea, can help you use your food more efficiently. Plan to use the leftovers from one meal as the base ingredients for the next. So if you always find yourself with two rashers of bacon left over after breakfast on Saturday why not use them in a carbonara? Or turn Sunday’s roast into a curry on Monday?

Cook once, eat twice - If you find that your fridge is always packed with half full jars of sauce or partially finished packs of meat the try cooking large meals and freezing portions of them. Alternatively borrow an old student trick and portion out your meat for freezing when you buy it – that way you don’t have to defrost a whole packet when you only need a single chicken breast.

Be a savvy shopper – Supermarkets use a system of stock rotation that makes sure food that goes off sooner is displayed more prominently. Reach to the back of a shelf and you might find that the use-by dates are anywhere up to a month later than those at the front.

If you’ve got any tips to share feel free to pop it in the comments.