Will Nicholson
Global Food Waste Programme Lead, WRAP
Cut food waste and plastic pollution — an association urges a packaging ban on 21 fruits and vegetables, revealing the environmental and financial benefits of buying loose produce.
If it is naked fruit and single veggies you want in the supermarket, the choice can be restrictive. So much fresh produce comes pre-packaged — only around 19% is sold loose. Meanwhile, 30% of the fresh vegetables and salad we buy are thrown away, often because we’ve picked up that plastic bag of potatoes, cannot eat them all in time, and then they go off.
Loose produce reduces waste
WRAP’s research, bringing together citizen and data analysis for the first time, showed the impact on household food waste of people buying more than they need, especially for smaller households, when only packed fruit and vegetables are available. If all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, 60,000 tonnes of food waste could be saved every year.1
By enabling people to buy only what they need, food waste will go down, along with plastic pollution. Single-use packaging is often hard to recycle and uses virgin fossil fuels. We estimate that a household of four spends £1,000 a year on food that gets thrown away.1
Fruit and vegetable packaging ban
WRAP has called for a consultation on a packaging ban on 21 fruit and veg items, to be developed via a formal consultation process. This recommendation has been developed with the food and drink industry across the supply chain. Selling these 21 items loose could potentially save 100,000 tonnes of edible fruit and vegetables from being wasted annually in people’s homes, as well as saving 13,000 tonnes of plastic film.2
Around 64% of us say we
prefer to buy loose. Yet, we
don’t always put that into practice.
Backing a loose produce policy
Around 64% of us say we prefer to buy loose. Yet, we don’t always put that into practice. Until regulation comes in, let’s support companies that offer loose fruit and veg.
Companies can help us, too, by simplifying price comparisons or weighing our produce. The retail industry recognises the importance of this change, but it needs government policy to help make it happen.
Normalising circular economy practices
Such shifts can look tough at first but quickly become the norm. For example, when we changed the date labels on dairy from ‘Use By’ to ‘Best Before,’ the industry soon got behind it. Selling fresh produce loose is another step towards WRAP’s mission of making circular living commonplace in every home and every boardroom.
[1] WRAP. 2022. Reducing household food waste and plastic packaging.
[2] WRAP. 2024. Removing packaging from uncut fresh produce.
