A study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies at the University of Manchester has looked at the effect of the recession on households’ food purchasing patterns.

A review and a consumer survey which look at promotions used by the UK grocery sector and what effect they might have on food waste. The tentative results from the in-home part of this research suggest that food bought on promotion is not more likely to be wasted, at least for the products investigated.

New research shows that annual UK household food waste has fallen by 13% / 1.1 million tonnes (mt) over a three year period from 8.3mt to an estimated 7.2mt. Avoidable household food waste (i.e. food that could have been eaten) has reduced by 950,000 tonnes, or 18%, from 5.3 to 4.4 million tonnes annually.