Cornwall Council is supporting this year’s Food Safety Week (July 4 to 10), which aims to help people better understand how to waste less food safely, by making more use of their freezers.

New research from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has revealed that 68% of UK adults report that they have thrown food away in the past month.

Over two thirds (36%) of those who had thrown away food said they have discarded food as it was past its use by date.  Other top reasons for throwing food away include buying too much and not eating it, which was reported by 30% of people; and not having the chance to eat food before it went off, which almost a quarter (23%) gave as an excuse for putting food in the bin.

This contributes to the seven million tonnes of food that is wasted in the UK each year which, according to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, costs each household around £470 annually.

Cornwall Council is backing the FSA’s campaign to encourage residents in Cornwall and across the UK to help tackle the problem of food waste by planning ahead and, if necessary, to freeze food within its use by date if there is a chance you may end up throwing it away once the use-by date expires. 

For more information on freezing food safely, visit www.food.gov.uk/useby or follow @foodgov #EatitCookitFreezeit on Twitter for tips and advice throughout Food Safety Week.