The escalating food demands in the UK are clueing about the essentiality of food usability education. The Waste Management Agency, WRAP, has been surveying about food waste management from 2001and stated that the country loses around 6 million tonnes of food per year and 2 million tonnes of it, due to unclear labels on the food product. Thus, a literacy program concerning unnecessary food waste is requisite.
The organization has researched about community behavior regarding food preferences and introduced a countrywide initiative which will cater to food waste management. The WRAP is eyeing to educate citizens about the better habits regarding food usage. The survey showed that 30% of the household fridge users set their fridge at the much warmer temperature which affects the usability of a product. The organization is preferably educating about the use of a refrigerator and expecting to introduce the blue fridge icon on the label, to teach buyer, about fridge usability. The fridge users are advised to keep their refrigerator at the 5C temperature or less than that, which can maximize product usability.
It states that old people prefer sniff food and wraps it up if it shows signs of non-eat ability, whereas young people prefer labels. The food companies are applying different terms and writing some unnecessary information about the product on a label. Many people throw eatable products in that confusion. E.g., labels on milk product suggest that the product will be a waste after three days, but factually, the product can be preserved for a week by keeping it in a fridge. Thus, the organization is eyeing label influence. The labels containing information about any food product are expected to be enlarged and fair expiry bid providing. According to WRAP, applying ‘display until’ or ‘sell by,’ instead of ‘best before’ as a phrase can also reduce the waste count.
The government is also supporting WRAP initiative and made the vital changes mandatory. The minister of environment and food management, Therese Coffey, stated that the food waste affects many other sectors as it increases greenhouse gases and pollution accordingly. Wasting of food demands for more fertile land and that tend to forest deplete. Thus, the new guidance regarding product packaging will be a revolutionary change, as it will salvage considerable amount of food.
