The results of a food wastage survey were reported recently here in the UK.  The findings estimated that 1.3 million pots of yoghurt were thrown in the trash, unopened, every day!  Not to mention thousands of whole chickens, millions of apples, potatoes, eggs and countless other foods - about 1/3 of all the food bought.  Go to http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail/food_waste/research/the_food_we_waste.html for more details.

I'm sure I'm not alone here in being staggered by this.  I was brought up to never throw food away.  I either eat or compost everything.  Part of the problem is greed and thoughtlessness whilst in the supermarkets, but it's also down to the fear that's been driven into people that anything past it's 'best before' date will make you ill, when these dates are really only there to cover the manufacturers liabilities.

Whenever I hear friends/family/colleagues complain about the recent and impending increases in food prices, I politely suggest that if they reduced the amount they wasted then the increases could be nullified or even reversed.  Strangely, nobody seems to think that they are the wasteful ones... throwing away out-of-date food is considered acceptable behaviour; the idea of buying less to start with takes some effort to get into heads.

I hope that someday people will learn to choose for themselves what they believe.  Good on you, Dr M, for helping us to do that.