Business costs could lead to more food waste, says Cambridge café

A Cambridgeshire café has told us the current worries about the cost of running a business could mean hospitality firms will find it harder to focus on cutting down on food waste.

Figures from social impact company Too Good To Go found that almost 136 million food items are wasted in the UK each week and 19.4 million wasted a day.

The research also showed one in four people in the UK admit to discarding food past its best before date without checking if it's still edible, while a third admit to throwing food away solely because of its best before date.

"I think economics is going to play its part"

Darren Green's a director at Thrive Café in Cambridge, which uses a composter to dispose waste rather than sending it to landfill.

"Hospitality's getting squeezed with customers not having as much money to spend and the cost of everything else, energy, food, so I would have sympathy for any business owner who said 'I can't think about food waste at the moment'," he said.

"If you're a business and going to try and compost the waste, now you're having to think about not only the cost to get the food on the plate out there, but the cost of the waste that's coming back so I think economics is going to play its part.

"Probably a lot of businesses are already careful with the cost of food these days; nobody wants to put food in the bin before it's been cooked, so I think general awareness and slow steps are the way forward."

Younger people more likely to throwing food away

According to research, 16 to 24-year-olds have admitted to throwing away an average of three items per week compared to one item a week for over 55s.

And nearly half of people in the UK admit to throwing away food to replace items in fridges and cupboards.

A Defra spokesperson said: "Nobody wants to see good, nutritious food going to waste and harming our environment, which is why we’ve committed to eliminating food waste from landfill by 2030."

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