Households in UK cities with the highest amount of food waste could be throwing away as much as £283 a year, a study has revealed. The survey of more than 2,000 UK parents of children aged four to 12 found that 60% said their children refuse to eat a meal they are served at least once a week.
Families in Glasgow, Liverpool and Nottingham are particularly likely to be wasting high amounts of money on food that goes uneaten. The average amount that parents estimated their family wasted annually on uneaten food was £283 – with families in Glasgow estimating they waste £369 on average.
Average annual food waste by city
According to the research for Bernard Matthews, carried out by Censuswide in May, the average annual food waste estimates by city are as follows: Glasgow £369, Liverpool £316, Nottingham £315, London £312, Belfast £306, Leeds £299, Edinburgh £291, Newcastle £286, Cardiff £285, Birmingham £277, Manchester £252, Sheffield £251, Plymouth £250, Brighton £243, Southampton £240, Norwich £235, and Bristol £198.
At the other end of the spectrum, families in Bristol estimated they were wasting £198 per year typically.
Parents' views on food play
Half (50%) of parents surveyed felt that encouraging their child to play with food would help to reduce the pressure. Laurence Hinton, head of marketing at Bernard Matthews, said: “Parents agree that playing with your food can take some of the pressure out of mealtimes, encouraging children to engage positively with food and ultimately making family meals more enjoyable and less wasteful.”
