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Food waste cost calculator

WRAP says UK households bin 4.4 million tonnes of edible food a year, worth £17 billion. This tool turns three habit questions and your weekly shop into your household's share, stated as the honest estimate it is.

✓ Fact-checkedMads BukholtBy Mads BukholtUpdated 17 August 2026
An open estimate, benchmarked against WRAP’s March 2026 figures

What is food waste costing you a year?

Three habit questions plus your weekly shop, one honest estimate in pounds. No account, nothing stored.

How we estimate

Your answers place your household at 5%, 12% or 20% of your weekly food spend wasted: planned households sit near the bottom, improvised ones near the top. That share times your weekly shop times 52 gives the yearly figure. It is a transparent rule of thumb, not a measurement. For calibration: WRAP estimates UK households bin 4.4 million tonnes of edible food a year, worth £17 billion, about £1,000 for an average family of four.

0%
0a year

of your food spend, based on your answers

Per month
Equivalent to
meal-kit portions at the £5.50 average starting price across the six kits we track
Open model, not an audit: the 5%, 12% and 20% bands are our editorial rule of thumb, in the spirit of our advice to build your own food-waste maths. WRAP’s survey-based benchmark, about £1,000 a year for a family of four, lands inside the middle band for a typical family shop.
Can a meal kit cut this? Read the evidence

National figures: WRAP, Household Food Management Survey, March 2026 (4.4 million tonnes of edible food, £17 billion, about £1,000 per average family of four per year). Meal-kit average from our provider reviews, July 2026.

Why we show bands, not a fake-precise number

Nobody weighs their bin, and self-reported waste is notoriously optimistic, so a calculator that hands you £847.23 would be lying with decimals. Instead your habits select one of three bands. Planning the week, eating leftovers and checking the fridge before shopping are the three behaviours that most reliably separate low-waste from high-waste households, and they are exactly the levers WRAP’s campaigns target.

The meal-kit connection is real but bounded. Pre-measured portions remove the biggest everyday source of waste, the half-used fresh ingredients, but they cannot remove plate waste or over-ordering. We walk through what is measurable and what is marketing in food waste and meal kits, and the wider money question in are meal kits worth it.

Frequently asked questions

Where do the percentages come from?
They are an editorial rule of thumb, not a measurement: 5% for households that plan, eat leftovers and shop from a list, 20% for households that improvise most evenings, 12% in between. We benchmark the model against WRAP’s March 2026 estimate of about £1,000 of edible food binned per average family of four per year, which falls in our middle band for a typical family shop.
Would a meal kit eliminate this cost?
No, and be wary of anyone who quantifies the saving precisely. Pre-portioned ingredients remove surplus from the recipes the box covers, which is the biggest single source. Waste from other meals, snacks and plate leftovers stays with you.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser: nothing is sent, saved or tracked.