Food waste is a growing concern in Australia. The total annual spend on food waste this year has hit a whopping $10.3 billion dollars!
At Rabobank, we want to help you waste less and save more, so we are committed to helping Aussies to not only reduce their household waste but understand how food gets from farm to fork.
Our Food Waste Infographic and Food For Thought Video show the impact of food waste on the environment and your hip pocket, and how you can make simple changes to help create a more sustainable future.
Our 2020 Food Waste report shows that Australians were making positive inroads to reducing food waste before the Coronavirus pandemic hit, with food waste dropping almost two percentage points from an average of 12.9% of food purchased in 2019 to 11.1% in early 2020.
Aussies are now wasting 12.7% of their weekly grocery shop, costing the average Australian household an all-time high $1,043 per year and totalling $10.3 billion nationally.
The main reasons for food waste are: it goes off before we can finish it (35%), it’s hiding somewhere in the fridge and we’ve forgotten we bought it (29%) and not planning sufficiently (22%).
Of the people who wasted more during COVID, their reasons for increased food waste include:
The research shows that nearly one quarter (24%) of people spent more on food due to COVID-19.
Taking a look at the average weekly spend on food, across the generations:
Interestingly, people in the city spend $157 per week, while people in regional areas spend $163 per week, and people in rural areas spend $157 per week. Men spend slightly more ($163) than women ($153) and 18% of the population now buys their groceries online (up from 12% pre-pandemic).
During the peak of the pandemic, the research shows 10% of people spent more on food to stockpile items in case supply ran out, with Gen Y and Gen X most likely to do so.
Here’s some simple things you can do today to make a big change for everyone’s tomorrow:
The 2020 Rabobank Food Waste Report is part of Rabobank’s annual Financial Health Barometer (FHB), surveying over 2,395 financial decision makers aged between 18 and 65. The survey now in its tenth year polls attitudes and behaviours towards saving, debt, farming, food production and food waste. Results are weighted by gender, age and location according to statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Two surveys were undertaken this year, one pre-pandemic before COVID-19 restrictions set in, in March 2020, and the other as much of Australia began to emerge from the height of restrictions in September 2020, allowing for comparison of results and changes in behaviours.