Food Waste Avoidance 7 - Food Waste

What do we define as “Food Waste”?

Food waste is food that is thrown away when it could have been eaten.

Food waste results from preparing and cooking food. It is the food we throw in the bin, we feed to our pets or toss in the compost or worm farm. It's the food we bought to eat but then threw away.

There are two types of Food Waste:


Unavoidable food waste

• Food waste that cannot usually be eaten e.g. pineapple skins, tea bags and fruit and vegetable peelings It is the food waste we cannot really do anything further with apart from composting it or putting it in the bin.

Avoidable food waste

• Food that is wasted because we buy more than we need.
• Food that goes out of date before we use it.
• Food that is wasted because we cooked more than we need.

Avoidable food waste is often starchy foods (sliced bread, cooked rice and pasta), meat and dairy products.