Better food packaging is helping consumers waste less food, says a new WRAP survey.

The WRAP Retailer Survey 2011, released today (14 June), found that between February 2011 and March 2012, the food industry helped to reduce some of the £12 billion worth of food wasted each year through improved on-pack labelling and an increase in the availability of smaller pack sizes.

“Today’s report points to some great progress that’s been made”, said WRAP Design & Waste Prevention Director, Richard Swannell. “The steps retailers and manufacturers have been taking have made an important contribution towards helping reduce the amount of food we buy and waste.”

The survey looks at 12,000 products across 20 different categories where food waste has traditionally been high, including bread, bacon, chicken, apples, carrots, potatoes, bagged salad, rice, pasta, yoghurt, eggs, cheese and milk. Measures taken by the food retail industry to help reduce food waste in 2011-12 included:

• An increased availability of smaller packs of potatoes, milk, cooking sauces, bread and bread rolls

• 47 per cent of all packs sold are re-closable

• 96 per cent of all products surveyed carried storage guidance, helping consumers keep food fresher for longer

• The use of ‘display-until’ dates was found on less than a third of surveyed products and no ‘sell-by’ dates were found on any of the products.

• Retailers are making ‘best-before’ and ‘use-by’ dates easier to read

• More than 95 per cent of all cheddar cheese packs surveyed now carry a ‘best-before’ date (in 2009, 25 per cent had a ‘use-by’ date)

• 94 per cent of chilled orange juice packs surveyed carried a ‘use-by’ date

• New labelling rolled out by retailers including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, tell consumers that they can freeze goods up to the ‘use-by’ date rather than on day of purchase

The British Soft Drinks Association and British Retail Consortium members have also now agreed that all pasteurised fruit juices should carry a ‘best-before’ date to tell consumers that the product is safe to use after the date and not ‘off’. This was seen as important as around £220 million of cheese and £80 million of juices are thrown away each year because they are ‘not used in time’.

While the results show progress in making food packaging clearer, WRAP has warned that there’s still more that needs to be done to help consumers waste less. “We know from our research into food waste that the amount we’re throwing away every year has fallen [in November 2011, WRAP announced that annual UK household food waste had fallen by 13 per cent over a three year period] – but we’re still wasting enough food to fill Wembley Stadium nine times. There is still more we could all do to reduce waste – and save money in these hard-pressed times – and the food industry can help us”, said Swannell.

“There are areas where we think retailers could continue to make improvements – for example, by removing ‘display-until’ dates, increasing consistency of ‘use-by’ or ‘best-before’ date use and ensuring that consumers are given as long as possible to make use of the food (shelf-life)”, said Swannell, adding: “Increasing the proportion of products that carry freezing and defrosting guidance and the use of ‘freeze before date mark’ label could also make a big difference.“

The survey has been met with praise from the Scottish and Irish Environment Ministers as well as from the Waste and Recycling Minister, Lord Taylor of Holbeach: “I am pleased to see that the food industry has taken some positive steps by providing clearer date labels and introducing better pack sizes, but there is clearly more that needs to be done”, said Holbeach, adding: “I will be pushing food suppliers and retailers to make it as simple as possible for shoppers to know when food is safe to eat and how to cut down on what we throw away. Wasting food is not only a waste of money, it also contributes to climate change, so I welcome this evidence that supermarket retailers are now taking this issue seriously.”

Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, Andrew Opie, also welcomed the findings saying: “Retailers are not complacent and work’s going on all the time to bring food waste down further, but it’s great to know these efforts are being recognised. Retailers are redesigning products, packaging and labels to help people use and store food in ways that reduce waste. The myth that retailers confuse customers by using ‘sell-by’ dates can be put to bed for good – not a single ‘sell-by’ date was found in this survey of more than 12,000 products."

“We all want to reduce our waste, especially hard-pressed shoppers, and this is welcome official confirmation that retailers are doing everything they can to help customers cut their bills.”

It is hoped that WRAP’s report will encourage a review of the products and information given to consumers in order to facilitate changes to the retail environment that will further help reduce food waste.

The WRAP Retailer Survey 2011 can be found on WRAP’s website.