The potential for saving food waste by freezing food at home

UK consumers currently throw away around 800,000 tonnes of food (worth around €2.5 billion) each year due to it not being used in time (WRAP, 2009), much of which could be frozen to eat later rather spoiling or passing its ‘use by’ date. There is however confusion about whether products are suitable for freezing, and for how long they might be stored. This paper presents results from a literature and internet-based information review, which found that although the majority of products are reported as suitable for home freezing, there is conflicting advice on some products and also marked differences between reported Practical Storage Lives (PSLs). Although offering the potential to reduce waste, increasing the use of home freezers also leads to greater energy consumption. The scale of this increase was therefore assessed experimentally and the additional costs and carbon dioxide emissions compared with those associated with the reduced food waste.