Bbc wasted tv show trial#

He said he did not want use-by labels scrapped but for people to understand them better. “We’ve lost the sense of responsibility for our actions, and of trusting our own resources, our nose and our common sense.” Slashing all the tariffs for renewable energy and putting out a big red carpet for China to build nuclear power stations all over the country, I don’t think that’s the smartest thing they’ve done either.”īut the chef said that consumers had to take responsibility for food waste too, and said some people took “use-by” dates too literally. This government’s done one bizarre thing after another recently. “Of course I think they were wrong to slash the budget on communicating about this problem. He said the government had not helped by slashing the budget for its food waste agency in half. It said that, for example, less than 2% of surplus bread is sent to AD.įearnley-Whittingstall admitted that the challenge of tackling food waste was a bigger one than his previous ‘Fish Fight’ series. Sainsbury’s said that it only sent food to AD after it had exhausted other options, such as donating it to to charities or using it as an animal feed. “You’re in a dangerous situation where overproduction of food is something that, if it suits them, big corporations can do almost with gay abandon, without fear of consequence.” He said that while AD was better than landfill and did have a place – for food scrapped off plates in the catering industry and an inevitable small amount of waste at supermarkets – it was being used as a way to justify the overproduction of food. But actually scientifically it’s the wrong thing to do, because the energy recovery from AD is pathetic, compared to the energy recovered by people eating food.” “When we know there are hungry people, the idea of making electricity out of food when we could be feeding people, feels wrong. Sainsbury’s has previously said it’s the biggest user of AD in the UK. However the company told the Guardian that before the end of the year it would begin permanently selling lines of wonky potatoes, carrots, onions and parsnips at cheaper-than-normal prices across its stores.įearnley-Whittingstall was also critical of supermarkets’ increasing use of anaerobic digestion (AD), where their food waste is sent to plants to capture the gas released as it breaks down, for use as electricity.

Bbc wasted tv show trial#

The wonkier veg were sold at the same price as the class one courgettes, and labelled class two.Ī Morrisons’ spokesman said customers had “voted with their feet”, and the only wonky veg that sold well in a trial in its Milton Keynes store was when bagged up and sold at a reduced price as a ‘value’ option.

Morrisons rejected the chef’s criticism, saying some of the wonkier veg were only older because there were selling more slowly than the normal ones.