Householders are urged to use their loaves

The average household buys two loaves of bread a week, but a shocking 36% of those households regularly don’t eat their crusts.

Cutting the crusts from a loaf of bread can amount to wasting over 30% of the loaf – that’s a lot.

Collectively, 1.2 billion crusts are wasted each year from UK homes. That’s equivalent to 59 million loaves of bread going in the bin each year.

Eating your crusts is a simple (and tasty) thing that everyone can do which will help to reduce the negative environmental impact of food waste, and of course it means you aren’t wasting as much money either.

If you really can’t bring yourself (or your kids) to eat their crusts as they come, there are other options, you could:

• Cut them off and cook with them. Love Food Hate Waste has a wealth of recipes for using them up, like these; https://lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz/8-ways-with-bread-crusts//

Save them in the freezer until you have enough for your chosen recipe

• Save them for the ducks in the local park, or put them out on a bird feeder / table in a garden. The latest research suggests that a bit of bread in a birds diet won’t do any harm.

• Buy a crustless loaf and avoid the issue altogether

If you want to know more about the food waste issue, these links are worth exploring:

https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

http://www.wrap.org.uk/food-drink/business-food-waste/courtauld-2025