The best thing since sliced bread? Not wasting any!

Do you love bread? Most of us love a slice of toast in the morning or as a snack, but did you know we throw away £640 million worth of bread every year? That’s the equivalent of 37 million slices every day. New research carried out by Love Food Hate Waste and Hovis shows how we can all take simple steps to get more from our daily bread, and save money.

Nobody wants to run out of bread, but most of us end up buying more than we use and throw away on average a third of every loaf we buy.

More than half of us believe that bread is stale three or four days after we buy it, but it can last longer than we might expect. Blind taste tests revealed that consumers liked Hovis bread after six days as much as after two. Your bread is freshest up to and including on the best before date but safe to eat even after this date. The last few slices, even if they’re starting to stale, are perfect for toast.

There are a few easy things we can do to get more from our bread.

Storing bread in a bread bin and re-sealing the pack will keep it at its freshest. A popular myth is to keep it in the fridge, but believe it or not, this means it will actually go stale six times faster than in your bread bin/cupboard.

Only a third of us regularly freeze bread, but those that do say they waste less. Did you know you can toast bread, bagels, crumpets and pitta breads straight from the freezer, or even make sandwiches from frozen bread that will defrost by lunchtime?

A bread & butter pudding is a traditional way of using up leftover or slightly stale bread.

Councillor Anthony Blagg, Worcestershire County Council, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Waste and Sustainability said: “I used to love my Mother’s bread and butter pudding when I was young but never realised she was making it to use up the leftover bread – now I make it regularly and love the fact that even stale bread can be used up in this way. Toasting bread straight from the freezer also saves me a crucial few minutes in the mornings and means I always have bread ready to eat without wasting any.”

There are lots more great ideas on the www.lovefoodhatewaste.com website to help you to make more of your bread, including exciting recipes for sandwiches, saving you time and money.

Bakers are doing their bit as well, introducing a wider range of loaf sizes to suit all, simplifying labels to make it easier to see how to store your bread, and when to eat it by, and changing packaging to make it easier to reseal.