WRAP: Shelf-life tweaks helping to tackle food waste mountain – www.businessgreen.com

UK retailers are taking positive steps to reduce food waste, cutting back on packaging and tweaking guidance on shelf-lives, although more changes could easily be implemented to reduce the country’s annual food waste bill.

That is the conclusion reached by waste advisory body WRAP in its latest Retail Survey, launched this morning.

Researchers visited nearly 60 supermarkets and examined 2,000 food products. They found that a quarter of all prepacked unprepared food produce now carries no date label, while the available shelf life of other products has increased.

Shelf lives on milk had increased by an average of 1.5 days, for example – a move that was welcomed by WRAP, which had noted in previous research that an extra day could help reduce household milk waste by more than 20,000 tonnes a year.

The survey also welcomed wider deployment of WRAP’s Little Blue Fridge logo, which indicates when foods, such as apples, can stay fresh longer when refrigerated at home. The appearance of the snowflake logo also increased, climbing from 15 to 50 per cent of products surveyed, with the number of bread items carrying it doubling by 79 per cent. The report again praised the move, given freezing is an excellent way of extending the life of bread.

However, while welcoming the improvements WRAP’s report also flags a wide range of areas where insufficient action is being taken to curb food waste levels.

The study found more than one-fifth of items found on shelves had just two days or fewer of remaining life, including bread, minced beef, and berries. But researchers revealed little evidence of retailers taking steps to minimise the risk of this food being thrown away, the report said.

For example, there were few cases of retailers following WRAP advice to remove open-life statements from products except where food safety is an issue. In the case of hard cheese available life is an average of 64 days, but 90 per cent of packs carry advice to use within five or seven days of opening. Bagged salads, meanwhile, often have an open shelf-life of just one day.

WRAP also questions the use of best before labels for potatoes, finding that their average product life had decreased by one day.

In addition the report calls for the phrase “freeze on day of purchase” to be binned, as it discourages people from freezing and so retaining food. And it calls for better availability of smaller pack sizes, particularly in the case of bread, where small loaves were an average of 74 per cent more expensive per kg than 800g loaves. Statistically, the survey notes, single-person households waste 40 per cent more food per capita than other household types, largely because retailers still fail to effectively cater for such households.

“The way food and drink is packaged, labelled and priced can influence household food waste, and retailers and brands are uniquely placed to help minimise food waste in the home,” explained Peter Maddox, director at WRAP. “Our research shows that people want clear, consistent information on pack to help them keep food fresher for longer. Overall, we’ve seen good progress from all, but we have also been very clear with each company where more work is required, and where they are falling short.”

The survey results are accompanied by new guidance for the sector for fresh, uncut fruit and veg, produced by WRAP in conjunction with Defra and the Food Standards Agency. It aims to help retailers identify where food produce can be sold loose and reduce the use of best before dates on some pre-packed fresh produce.

The report also evaluates the results of a trial in a Morrisons store in North Yorkshire, which saw the retailer experiment with stripping back packaging from fresh produce lines by selling a higher proportion loose. It found most people preferred buying fresh produce loose, because they could choose the size and condition of items and buy the exact quantity required. A small group preferred plastic packaging for convenience and hygiene reasons, the report acknowledged.

“Public concern has grown over plastic packaging since our last survey, particularly around fresh produce, and we have updated our guide to address single use, problematic plastics in this category,” Maddox said.

“Removal of packaging must be done carefully to avoid food waste, and we now we have a clear set of principles that will help limit plastic use, and ensure removal is done in a safe and sustainable way.”

WRAP’s Retail Survey follows a commitment set out in the government’s Resources & Waste Strategy to detail progress made in adopting best practice advice around packaging and shelf-life messaging.

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