Freeze eggs to ‘save money and cut food waste’

Shoppers should learn to freeze their eggs to help cut food waste and save money during the cost of living crisis, Sainsbury’s has said.

Just one in 10 people realise that it’s possible to freeze eggs, which can extend their life up to a year, a survey by the supermarket found.

The average family wastes £60 a month throwing away food, according to waste charity WRAP, which says almost all food items can be frozen.

Herbs and yoghurt are two other items that people do not know can be frozen, and instead are thrown away, Sainsbury’s research found. The most commonly thrown away items include bread, milk and salad.

“If it were a country, food waste would have the third largest carbon footprint in the world, behind only the USA and China,” Catherine David, from packaging and waste charity WRAP, said.

The supermarket has seen sales of reduced food increase by 5 per cent in the last month, and one in three say they plan to buy more reduced food.

But very few people, just 16 per cent of those surveyed, freeze their reduced items, instead believing they must be eaten the same day.

Nearly 90 per cent of adults have noticed costs of everyday items rise in recent weeks, prompting millions to cut back on essentials such as food or turn to foodbanks.

Food waste accounts for around 8 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions, most of it from the home.

Supermarkets have begun removing best-before-end dates from items including apples, potatoes and broccoli to discourage people from throwing away food that is still edible.

Morrisons has encouraged customers to use the “sniff test” to decide if milk is still usable and is removing use-by dates on its own brand bottles.

“Innovative freezing not only allows us to save food we would otherwise have thrown away but also to buy reduced-priced food close to its use-by date, saving even more money on the weekly grocery bill,” said Ruth Cranston from Sainsbury’s.

Ms David urged households to maintain the contents of their freezer to avoid food being forgotten.

“We found that a third of people admit their freezer is sometimes a total disaster area,” she said.

“This results in UFOs, or unidentified frozen objects and around 20 per cent of us throw away something frozen because it has laid dormant for too long.”