A typical British family wastes £420 worth of food every year.

Britons can help to reduce the price of food by cutting down on the amount they waste, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told reporters.

The PM was talking to journalists on their way to the Group of Eight (G8) summit which opened today (8 July) in Hokkaido, Toyako, Japan.

He told reporters: “If we’re to get food prices down, we must do more to deal with unnecessary demand by all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain about £8 per week.”

The world economy – in particular rising food and fuel prices – and global climate change are topping the agenda for the three-day summit which is attended by leaders from the world’s major industrialised nations.

The Heads of State will also discuss development and Africa, as well as political matters, such as nuclear issues in North Korea and Iran. In addition, many Western leaders will use the summit to express concern about the political situation in Zimbabwe.

According to a government report, Britain wastes around four million tonnes of food a year – adding an average of £420 to the typical family’s shopping bills. 

It also revealed that rising food and fuel prices have pushed the rate of inflation up to 3.3%, over a third higher than the central bank’s target of 2%. Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, has warned Britons to only expect a slight easing in prices.

“The experts say we may see them come down a bit, but they’re not going to go back to where they were a year ago,” Benn told the BBC. “We’re living at a time when, over the next 50 years, there will be another 2.5 billion mouths to feed on this planet so we are going to need a significant increase in food production if we are going to make sure that everyone has enough to eat.”

For more information on the G8 summit, visit: www.g8summit.go.jp/eng

By Natasha Piscitelli