Tasmanians waste the least amount of food in the country, a new report has found.
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Online bank organisation RaboDirect’s report surveyed 2300 Australians aged 16 to 65, asking them about attitudes towards food and waste, savings and debt, and their weekly grocery spend.
They found Tasmanians spent the least on groceries each week, forking out $136 on average.
Rather than being proactive...I find people tend to buy more than they need and then eat it all because they don’t want to waste it.
- Launceston dietitian Georgia Rossetto
NSW spent the most on groceries with an average of $159 per week, while also wasting the most.
Launceston dietitian Georgia Rossetto welcomed the figure, but questioned whether eating leftover food or throwing it out could contribute to higher rates of obesity.
”Rather than being proactive and buying less food to avoid excess, I find people tend to buy more than they need and then eat it all because they don’t want to waste it,” she said.
She said that saving food required a change in habits, including meal planning, and knowing how much food our bodies needed.
Launceston Benevolent Society chief executive John Stuart said he believed Tasmanians too often threw out leftovers without realising they could be reused.
The survey found Australians waste $1100 on food each per household – equating to $10 billion collectively.
Only six per cent of Tasmanians wasted more than 20 per cent of their food, compared to 18 per cent in NSW.
Australians can cut down on their wastage by:
- Planning meals on a weekly budget, keeping a food diary of wastage, and only buying what you need
- Create a space in the fridge for foods with an impending expiry data and consuming those first
- Making meals that can be used as leftovers for lunches throughout the week
- Question why certain items were wasted, and whether there was a need to buy them
