Meals planned, list in hand, it’s time to do the food shop.

The grocery retail journey often begins with fresh fruit and vegetables – they’re right there in front of us, creating a first impression of ‘fresh’ and a rainbow-coloured reminder to get our five-a-day.

However, fresh vegetables and salad is the UK’s most wasted food group (27%) by weight. Add fresh fruit (8%), and fresh produce represents over one-third of the food wasted from our homes.

A big reason for fresh produce waste is ‘not used in time’ meaning it went rotten or mouldy.

So, it makes sense to swap short-life fresh produce (and other) items for longer-lasting frozen ones. Yet the frozen food aisle is usually located at the end of the shopping journey.

Although this helps to reduce the length of time food is out of the freezer, it also reinforces the impression of frozen as the aisle of last resort, a place to pick up peas before dashing for the door!

When shopping frozen:

• Remember to take a cool bag, ideally with ice packs, to keep your food ice and cold.
• Use a hand-held device or phone App to scan your shop. That way, you put your food straight into your cool bag, rather than into the trolley for packing later at the checkout.
• Try shopping at a frozen food specialist. It’s easier to think and shop frozen when the layout is focused on frozen, not fresh, and there’s plenty of choice.
• Shop online, where you can click on frozen first and someone else brings it to your door under temperature-controlled conditions!

By Helen White, Associate Director Tetra Tech