New Zealand wastes $872m worth of food annually, says new audit

An audit undertaken by New Zealand Councils has revealed that an average New Zealand family throws away more than $563 worth of edible food every year.

The country reportedly wastes food worth around $872m annually, equivalent to over 124,300 tonnes of food a year; enough to feed around 266,680 people.

The audit was undertaken to find out which foods were being thrown away, and the reason behind the wastage.

The Love Food, Hate Waste campaign was initiated by 60 councils across the country. It revealed that citizens of Auckland were the most wasteful, throwing out food worth $574 every year.

As a part of the campaign, close to 1,365 New Zealanders were surveyed and the contents of 1,396 household rubbish bins were examined. 100 families were also given diaries to record food disposal for a week.

the representative body of the waste and resource recovery sector WasteMINZ coordinated the campaign.

Television New Zealand quoted WasteMINZ CEO Paul Evans as saying: "We have known for some time that throwing food into the bin has a big environmental impact, but this research has been a real eye opener. We now know just how much of that food waste is unnecessary and the financial impact this has [on] families."

The study further revealed that breads, fruits, vegetables and meal leftovers were the most common foods being wasted. Close to 20 million loaves of bread was found to be thrown into rubbish bins uneaten every year.

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Image: Breads, fruits, vegetables and meal leftovers were found to be wasted the most. Photo: courtesy of photoexplorer/freedigitalphotos.net.