"Plastic around fruit and vegetables causes more food waste"

A cucumber or lettuce in a plastic packaging keeps longer, many supermarkets argue. A British study claims the opposite: it actually causes more food waste.

Keeping it cool is most important

The idea that disposable plastic packaging keeps fruit and vegetables fresh for longer is wrong. That is the conclusion of the British sustainability organisation Wrap after a one-and-a-half year study. The organisation investigated the shelf life of apples, bananas, broccoli, cucumbers and potatoes, both loose and wrapped in plastic.

Keeping fresh food cool (less than five degrees) is much more important than whether it is wrapped or not. Apples kept well in the fridge for months and other products for days. The plastic packaging made little or no difference, Marcus Gover, general manager of Wrap, told The Guardian.

More in the bin

On the contrary, the packaging often leads to more food waste. People are forced to buy more than they need, so more fruit and vegetables end up being thrown away. Another advantage of unpackaged food is that there is no expiry date, so consumers use their own judgement rather than blindly following the date on the packaging. One in ten people throw away food and groceries based solely on the date, Gover claims.

If the five products studied were sold loose and without expiry dates, more than 10,300 tonnes of plastic and some 100,000 tonnes of food would be saved each year. The organisation is therefore starting talks with the UK Food Standards Agency and the industry to only sell loose fruit and vegetables in supermarkets by 2025. In France, a ban on plastic packaging for fresh food was introduced last year.