Food Waste: New Answers for Old Problems

The Food Programme

Food waste isn't a new story. So why cover it again? Well, in the UK, we are still wasting over 10 million tonnes of food a year. That's food that could have been sold, eaten, cooked and enjoyed.

Clearly this is a problem that isn't going away. But crucially, we have a new government who have said that a zero waste economy is one of their top priorities for the environment. What will this mean for food waste? And is it individuals, or businesses, who can really make a difference?

In this programme, Leyla Kazim goes after some new answers. Does the answer lie in the design of our fridges, for example? Or in making it law for supermarkets to tell us how much food they waste? Along the way, she meets the people who have made it their life’s work to help us cut waste, from dumpster divers to fridge enthusiasts.

Ever wondered where all the unsold food from supermarkets goes? Matt Homewood, AKA The Urban Harvester, went to find out one night in his home town of Copenhagen, Denmark, and what he found shocked him. He began 'dumpster diving' every night and sharing pictures of his food swag on social media. Leyla hears how these posts began to go viral and were the start of Matt’s activism to put the spotlight on supermarket food waste.

Food waste is often talked about in terms of redistribution to charities or food banks. But that isn’t the only answer, finds Leyla, when she visits Katy Newton, founder of Wasted Kitchen in Kent and a finalist in the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2024. Katy buys or trades for the surplus food she uses to make her takeaways, ferments and deli salad boxes, which go back on sale at the food hall next door. Katy explains why she wanted to counter the narrative around food charity and help people be more confident in the kitchen along the way.

Leyla hears an update from Wrap, the organisation that runs the UK’s official food waste scheme, to find out what action has been taken so far and whether they would support a law to make food waste reporting legal. She asks the same question to the new government, before calling on journalist Ian Quinn, chief reporter at trade magazine The Grocer, for his take on what's happening in the industry.

Online there is a growing network of influencers helping people eat everything they buy to save waste, but also, save money. Two of the most popular, Elly Pear (another finalist for this year's Food and Farming Awards) and Max La Manna, meet in Elly’s kitchen in Bristol to share their best food waste tips and approach Elly’s fridge, ready-steady-cook style, to cook lunch with last night's leftovers.

Talking of fridges, at her home in London, Leyla hosts PhD researcher Emma Atkins for one of Emma’s unique ‘fridge sessions’. Emma’s research looks at our relationship with the fridge, how its design can hinder our food waste efforts, and how fridge history is linked to over-buying of food. She quizzes Leyla about her food waste hotspots and explains how we might be hampered in our food waste efforts by the objects and systems around us.

Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.