

Nearly one in five UK households admit to binning an entire loaf of bread before even opening or slicing it, according to new research supporting a campaign to encourage consumers to take steps to reduce the national mountain of food waste.

Just under half of adults (49%) say they eat bread every day, with 38% buying two loaves a week. But the survey commissioned by Love Food Hate Waste also found that 18% admitted to throwing away a forgotten loaf before opening it, while a quarter of us admit to discarding bread before reaching the end of the loaf.

The poll marks the launch of the initiative’s ‘Use Your Loaf’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the amount of bread that goes to waste nationwide. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics around 24m slices of bread are thrown out by UK households every day.

Emma Marsh, head of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, run by the government’s waste advisory body Wrap , said: “Bread is a favourite on our plates and in our lunch boxes, but sometimes if we don’t finish a loaf, it goes stale and ends up in the bin. There are simple things we can do to use it up or store it differently, to reduce food waste and save money.”

Love Food Hate Waste has joined forces with reigning BBC1 Great British Bake Off champion Nancy Birtwhistle. Dubbed ‘queen of consistency’ by judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, her journey to being crowned 2014’s winner saw her blitz dough in the microwave.

“I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Use Your Loaf campaign to remind people that our beloved bread can be used in so many ways” Birtwhistle said. “Leftover crusts can be blitzed into breadcrumbs and stale bread is fantastic for making bread and butter pudding, croutons or garlic bread.”

The campaign advises consumers that most bakery products have a ‘best before’ date, which refers to quality, so they can still be eaten after this date even if no longer at their best.

According to the latest figures from Wrap, UK households waste 7m tonnes of food – worth £700 per family – every year and at a total cost of £12.5bn. This is just under half the 15m tonnes of food wasted annually in the UK – the rest by supermarkets, restaurants and elsewhere in the supply chain.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s this week announced a £10m project to reduce household food waste and is looking for a UK town to act as a ‘test-bed’ for future initiatives to change consumer behaviour.