East Anglia charity says "food waste and food poverty “are two sides of the same problem."
It's as a new report shows, food waste is on the rise
A Suffolk charity redistributing surplus food across East Anglia says the UK faces a stark contradiction: rising food waste while more people struggle to afford to eat.
New figures released ahead of Food Waste Action Week (9–15 March) suggest the average UK household of four will have already thrown away around £200 worth of edible food by the middle of March.
At the same time, charities including FareShare East Anglia say demand from community groups for food support continues to grow.
Regional manager for FareShare East Anglia, Mike Barrett, from Felixstowe, said the organisation works to redirect surplus food to charities including food banks, refuges and community pantries.
“We support charities, food banks, refuges and a lot of places called pantries or top-up operations where we supply bulk food and then that goes home,” he said.
Surplus food in the supply chain
Mr Barrett said much of the food redistributed by the charity would otherwise go to waste due to strict retail specifications.
He explained that produce can be rejected before reaching supermarket shelves, even when it is perfectly edible.
“Sometimes we’ll get bananas that have come across from South America, and on inspection at port, they’re either too green, they’re too yellow, they’re too long, or they’re too short,” he said.
“They’re a banana, but they don’t meet the specification of the purchaser, so therefore they get offered to us.”
Large quantities of surplus food can arrive at the charity’s warehouses as a result.
“I’ve got literally a tonne of bananas that came in a couple of days ago,” he said.
“There’s nothing wrong with them. They will all go out to all our charities and people. I think most people like a banana at the end of the day.”
Waste in homes
While FareShare focuses on redistributing surplus food from suppliers and retailers, Mr Barrett said waste within households is also a significant issue.
“I’m not surprised on a personal level,” he said.
“It’s something that I’ve always been passionate about and my freezer is full. If there’s anything left over and I can freeze it, I will do so.”
According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, around 4.4 million tonnes of edible food are thrown away from UK homes each year.
That equates to around £17 billion worth of food annually, or roughly £1,000 per year for an average household of four.
Survey data also suggests many people believe food waste is unavoidable, with 64% saying some level of waste at home is inevitable.
Campaigners say common causes include food going out of date, cooking too much, or difficulties planning meals around busy daily lives.
Giving food a second life
FareShare East Anglia works to ensure as much surplus food as possible is used rather than discarded.
If food cannot be distributed to people, the charity looks for alternative uses.
“If it’s an edible item that we can push through to the pig farm, we will push it to the pig farm,” Mr Barrett said.
“The carrots are just turning, they’re not probably suitable for human consumption, but they’re perfectly good animal feed.”
Food that cannot be reused in that way may be sent to an anaerobic digester, where it can generate electricity.
“So the life of that carrot ends up boiling your kettle at home,” he said.
The charity is also testing ways to turn food waste into compost through a pilot project based in Ipswich.
Tackling the wider problem
Campaigners say reducing food waste could help households save money while also reducing environmental impacts.
With millions of tonnes of edible food still being thrown away each year, organisations like FareShare argue that tackling waste is key to addressing both environmental concerns and rising food insecurity.