Supporting Food Waste Action Week

Food Waste Action Week is the flagship annual event delivered by WRAP's Love Food Hate Waste (opens new window). The campaign helps households develop the tools they need to cut food waste at home.  This year, Food Waste Action Week will continue to focus on raising awareness of the benefits of buying loose fruit and veg.

With food waste costing on average £1,000 for a household of four every year, Food Waste Action Week will help shoppers to save money and waste less food by shopping for loose produce.

WRAP's research has identified the potential to reduce household food waste by removing the packaging on uncut fresh fruit and veg, enabling us to buy closer to our needs as well as the 'bonus' benefit of eliminating a significant amount of unnecessary packaging.

WRAP recently called for a packaging ban on 21 fruit and veg items, to be developed via a formal consultation process. This recommendation has been created in consultation with industry stakeholders from across the supply chain. Selling these 21 items loose has the potential to save in the region of 100,000 tonnes of edible fruit and vegetables from being wasted annually in people's homes as well as saving 13,000 tonnes of plastic film.

WRAP has identified that, to drive action across the whole UK food system and help overcome the challenges faced by industry, policy change would create a level playing field and unlock action that is essential to enabling people to choose what they'll use and buy more uncut fruit and veg loose.

Jackie Bailey, Senior Campaign Manager Love Food Hate Waste, said:"We know buying loose fruit and veg has the potential to significantly cut the amount of food ending up in the bin - now is the time for retailers and shoppers to make that a reality. Increasing loose fruit and veg offerings in store will not only reduce hard to recycle plastics, it will also enable shoppers to buy closer to their needs, slashing waste and stopping tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2"

Amie Huggett, Business Manager for the Business Waste & Recycling Service at Chichester Council, said: "We are thrilled to support Love Food Hate Waste's Food Waste Action Week, running from 17 - 23 March 2025. Every year, the hospitability and food sector throw away 1.1 million tonnes of food.  75% of the food wasted could have been eaten, costing £3.2 billion.  Our Business Waste & Recycling team are on hand to help your business or organisation save on food waste.  Simple actions can go a long way, and we have a range of tools and resources available to help kick start your food waste prevention journey which includes WRAP's Guardians of Grub (opens new window) campaign. For unavoidable food waste, we provide a dedicated and cost-effective food waste recycling service which means nothing is wasted.  It will also ensure you are compliant with new 'Simpler Recycling' regulations coming into place from 31 March 2025 which requires businesses to have a dedicated collection of food waste.  Simply visit Food waste for more information."