Waste Not - Worry Not

Almost half of all six to eight year old children (45%) have no worries about wasting food from their dinner plates and 41% of parents admit to throwing away at least a fifth of their children's food in just one week – equating to a minimum of £131 of thrown-away food per child per year. To put this into perspective, if a family with two children could use their children's leftover food for other dishes, they could save enough money in a year to cover their weekly food bill for three weeks. The research launched today by Morrison's, surveyed over 1,000 six to eight year old children about food waste. Almost half (46%) of all children who took part said leftover food simply ends up in the bin, with only 15% claiming that leftovers get made into something else. And one in three children (35%) think that saving leftovers for another meal is actually unhealthy. Sally Moore, Morrison's nutritionist comments: "We are really surprised at just how many children don't worry about wasting food and even more concerning is that some think leftovers are bad for them, which is costing families a lot of money every year. We appreciate how hard it is for parents to encourage their kids to eat all their dinner but in the current climate it's a really easy way to keep costs down."