Premier Foods is using Great Little Ideas to help reduce the amount shoppers throw out, says Teresa Arbuckle


Here's some food for thought as we tuck into our turkey dinners with all the trimmings this Christmas.

As a nation we will waste an estimated 230,000 tonnes of food over the course of this festive period, worth an estimated £275m, according to our friends at the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap). In a period lasting little over a week, this represents almost 3% of the 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink that Wrap says we throw away each year.

Most of the waste will come from the simple fact that we will buy too much food in the first place. Indeed, a recent consumer survey commissioned by Premier Foods showed that almost 50% of women who account for the vast majority of the Christmas food shopping carried out each year readily admitted to buying too much food in the run-up to Christmas.

Only 4% of female respondents said they had ever made the mistake of not buying in enough food. Think about that, only 4%!

But Premier Foods is a responsible food producer in a responsible industry, and we all have a part to play in minimising the impact of excess buying and helping to provide a solution to reduce waste. That is why we at Premier Foods have extended our successful Great Little Ideas campaign into the area of food waste this Christmas to tackle the issue.

When we launched our multimillion-backed Great Little Ideas campaign in February this year, it was primarily designed to give shoppers in particular mums hints, tips and twists on how to use some of Britain's best-loved brands in new and innovative ways.

And so far our campaign based around 16 of our key brands has seen over half a million people logging onto www.greatlittleideas.com to copy a host of ideas including everything from Homepride chilli tortilla wraps to Ambrosia banana brulée. Unsurprisingly, it has had a positive effect on our sales, too.

But as the programme grew in popularity, it struck us that we could also use Great Little Ideas to help householders reduce their food waste. Let's hope it does.

Teresa Arbuckle is head of marketing strategic projects at Premier Foods.