中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
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The United Kingdom Food waste is a huge problem in the UK, where abundant availability has led to consumers not appreciating the value of food as much as previous generations, when times were harder and food much scarcer. Private households are responsible for almost 50 percent of the food thrown away in the UK every year. UK families discard 7.2 million metric tons of food and drink annually, costing the average household 480 pounds ($756) a year and rising to 680 pounds for families with children, the equivalent of around 50 pounds a month, according to the website Love Food, Hate Waste, in November 2011. The website is affiliated with the nonprofit Waste and Resources Action Programme, which has government funding from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Graham Jukes, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, a nonprofit organization, said that household waste often results from consumers throwing food away even though it is still edible. "For our food sold in supermarkets, there is often a 'use-by' date, which complies with the labeling requirements. These dates are fixed so there is a leeway to ensure the food is safe, but many people just throw away food after the 'use-by' date passes, when in fact the food may be perfectly good to eat, and maybe 60 years ago they would have eaten it," he said. Jukes said the attitude of UK consumers toward food waste has changed dramatically since the Second World War. "The wealthier a society becomes, the more it is able to throw good food away," he said. "People think: 'I'm reasonably well off, so I don't mind having excess food. It demonstrates we're not in a bad situation anymore!" In recent years, successive UK governments have launched campaigns to encourage consumers to reduce waste. A system was also created whereby industry players feel financial pressure: Restaurant owners are required to separate their food waste from other types. They then have to pay professional collectors to take waste away. The system is intended to dissuade businesses from binning excessive amounts of waste. The UK has no formal legislation on reducing food waste, said Jukes, and legislation relating to food waste is often implemented for the purpose of ensuring food security. Industry associations that promote the sustainable handling of food waste also play a key role in raising awareness of the issue among individuals and restaurants. The Sustainable Restaurant Association is a nonprofit membership organization established by individuals in the catering industry in 2010 to help restaurants adopt sustainable practices. It has about 1,100 member restaurants. "Many restaurants had the best of intentions, but didn't know how to change," said Tom Tanner, the SRA's media manager. SRA staff provide member restaurants with advice and information that can help to reduce food waste. They advise restaurants to provide smaller portions and encourage customers to use doggy boxes to take leftover food home. A survey carried out by the SRA in 2010 found that the average London restaurant threw out 21 tons of food waste every year; 30 percent of the waste came straight from customers' plates. "Some restaurants serve large portions or lots of cheap side dishes. The customer may not realize how much food they have ordered, and can end up paying for something they cannot eat," said Tanner. The results of the survey prompted the organization to launch a campaign in 2011 called "Too Good To Waste". The campaign encouraged consumers to feel comfortable about asking for doggy boxes for leftover food and encouraged waiters to offer them at the end of a meal. "In the UK, people are either too embarrassed to ask, or they assume the restaurant won't be allowed to give them doggy boxes," explained Tanner. The SRA also urges member restaurants to prepare food in quantities likely to match customer requirements. "For example, if a restaurant expects 50 customers during the evening, we encourage them not to prepare 50 portions of the evening's special dish. It's better to run out than throw away," he added. So far, the campaign has proved successful and many member restaurants have also been able to reduce costs by employing the SRA's suggestions.
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食物浪費在英國也是個很大的問題。隨著食物供給的充足和品種的豐富，加之英國人的消費能力較過去增強，導致現在消費者不像前幾代人那樣珍惜食物。 來自英國的Love Food, Hate Waste 網站的統計數據顯示，2011年英國每年扔掉的食物中50%來自普通人的餐桌。英國家庭每年扔掉的食物和飲料高達720萬噸，相當于平均每家480鎊，而對于有孩子的家庭這個費用則高達680鎊每年。 Graham Jukes, 英國特許環境健康研究所負責人說普通家庭浪費的食物主要來自于不少消費者因為“最佳消費日期”標簽而誤以為食品過期扔掉造成很多浪費。其實，食品最佳消費期限意味著過了這個期限食物的口感可能不如以前，但食用絕對無害。 Jukes 說英國消費者對于食物的態度從二戰后發生了巨大的變化。“社會變得越富有，食物就會被扔的更多。”他說，“因為人們認為自己生活的不錯，可以負擔得起那些被扔掉的食物，這表明自己不再貧窮了。” 但是，雖然大部分英國人仍受到傳統觀念的影響，但不斷變化的環境已讓越來越多人開始意識到食物浪費的嚴重性。近幾年來英國政府也意識到了問題的嚴重性，采取了很多措施來減少浪費。比如，要求餐館把食物垃圾進行分類。然后餐館再付不同的費用請不同的專業收購者把垃圾帶走。這種做法旨在減少大量食物浪費的產生，迫于這方面費用的支出，餐館也會減少食物的浪費。不過，目前英國還沒有專門針對減少食物浪費方面的法律。Jukes說目前針對食物方面的立法主要是關于如何保障食品安全的。 此外，許多行業協會也在減少浪費，幫助民眾和餐館提高節約意識推動可持續發展方面起了很大的推動作用。 2010年成立的餐館可持續發展協會(SRA)就是其中一個，旨在減少餐館產生的食物浪費，工作已經起到了很大的成效，目前有會員餐館1100家。協會負責人Tom Tanner說：“許多餐館都有減少浪費的意識，但是很多人都不知道該怎么做？” 他說，我們所做的正是為他們提供可行辦法教會他們該如何去做。比如他們建議餐館改賣小份菜同時鼓勵顧客把吃不完的食物打包帶回家。SRA在2010年做過的一次調查發現，平均每個倫敦的餐館一年要扔21噸食物，其中30%來自客人餐后盤子里剩下的。 他還說，很多顧客根本沒有意識到自己點的菜量有多大，他們付了很多錢，但是實際上吃不了那么多。 2011年，SAR還發起了一個叫做"Too Good To Waste"的運動，餐后服務員主動提供打包袋來鼓勵顧客不要認為打包沒有面子。 Tanner說不像在美國，人們很自然的就想到餐后打包，英國人會認為要求打包很沒面子或是直接就要求餐館不要提供打包袋。Tanner同時鼓勵餐館每天準備適量的食物。“比如一個餐館每天晚上大概會接待50位客人，我們建議餐館準備少于50份食物，買過了總比賣不了扔了更好啊！” 目前來看，很多餐館再引入SRA的建議后，食物浪費量都有了明顯的減少。
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