The Meaty Issues campaign has released its latest figures revealing that consumers throw away 34,000 tonnes of beef every year, worth £260 million annually.

The campaign, from Love Food Hate Waste, which is fronted by farmer and presenter of BBC’s Countryfile, Adam Henson, encourages consumers to reduce beef waste by taking action such as planning meals in advance, storing food better and understanding date labels.

Adam Henson and Richard Swannell at the launch of the Love Food Hate Waste's Meaty Issues campaign.

Adam Henson and Richard Swannell at the launch of the Love Food Hate Waste's Meaty Issues campaign. Photo credit: Teri Pengilley.

Speaking to Meat Management, Richard Swannell of Love Food Hate Waste and the director of sustainable food systems at WRAP stated butchers, suppliers and retailers could make an impact in reducing the amount of beef thrown away in the home.

“Our research has shown that, despite our love of beef in the UK, we still throw away hundreds of millions of pounds worth every year, with an equivalent weight to 300 million burgers,” he said.

“The industry also has an important role to play and we have been working with retailers and brands to help their customers when purchasing food. For example, improvements in labelling, such as removing the ‘display until’ label and simply having the ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ mark is less confusing for customers, whilst promotions that give consumers more flexibility to use up the food they buy are also beneficial.

“This type of work needs to continue to ensure we can carry on reducing the amount of food waste this country produces.”

Also in attendance at the event was Iain Ferguson, the environmental manager at Co-op, who revealed the initiatives the retailer were implementing to help customers.

“Last year we also developed packaging for our meat products, such as beef, to increase its life from ten to 17 days using vacuum skin packaging.”

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign began in 2007 to tackle the issue of 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink being wasted in the home per year.

This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.

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