8.3 million tonnes of food and drink is wasted in the UK each year, of which nearly 800,000 tonnes is bakery waste. Of this, the majority is ‘avoidable’ waste (680,000 tonnes per year) which costs £1.1 billion.
This project comprised two elements.
Firstly, extensive consumer research to investigate consumers’ attitudes, motivations and behaviour around buying, storing, using and throwing away bakery items.
Subsequently, a trained panel assessment, combined with a consumer product test, sought to identify:
- whether the sensory properties of mainstream, sliced bread over its shelf-life have a relationship with respondents’ bread disposal patterns, and
- stated reasons for throwing bread away.
Insights from this research, and from assessing changes to the sensory properties of bread over time, have been used to develop recommendations to help consumers reduce bakery waste.
Report: http://www.wrap.org.uk/document.rm?id=10621
Report exec. summary: http://www.wrap.org.uk/document.rm?id=10623
