Love Food Hate Waste’s ‘Use Your Loaf’ campaign is launched today by Great British Bake-Off Champion, Nancy Birtwhistle

24 million slices of bread are thrown out in the UK every day according to Love Food Hate Waste

It’s safe to say Wales loves bread – 38% in the city say they eat bread every day, with 32% buying two loaves a week.

But a new survey commissioned by Love Food Hate Waste found that they don’t always get around to using it up.

In fact, just over a quarter (28%) have often ended up throwing bread away before reaching the end of the loaf – 23% even admitted to binning a forgotten loaf before opening it.

The poll marks the launch of the initiative’s ‘Use Your Loaf’ campaign, which has set out to raise awareness of the amount of bread that goes to waste nationwide.

Research shows that around 24 million slices of bread are thrown away from UK households every single day.

For 17% of people in Wales, letting bread go stale was the main reason it goes to waste.

Emma Marsh, Head of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, said, “Bread is a favourite, on our plates and in our lunch boxes, but sometimes we don’t finish a loaf, it goes stale and ends up in the bin.

This doesn’t have to be the case, bread is really versatile, that’s why we’re excited to launch our Use Your Loaf campaign as there are lots of simple things we can do to use it up or store it differently to reduce food waste and save money.”

To help spread the word, Love Food Hate Waste has joined forces with reigning Great British Bake Off (GBBO) champion, Nancy Birtwhistle.

Nancy, who impressed the judges of last year’s contest with her no nonsense approach to baking, has spoken frequently on the importance of being thrifty with food.

Donned ‘queen of consistency’ by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, her journey to being 2014’s GBBO champion even saw her blitz dough in the microwave in the race to come out top.

Nancy said, “I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Use Your Loaf campaign to remind people that our beloved bread can be used in so many ways.

“Leftover crusts can be blitzed into breadcrumbs and stale bread is fantastic for making bread and butter pudding, croutons or garlic bread.”

The campaign is also on the hunt for Britain’s best leftover bread recipes – enter the competition to win and find more tips, tricks and recipes by visiting wales.lovefoodhatewaste.com/useyourloaf

To help the country get the most out of their loaf, Love Food Hate Waste and Nancy have shared their five top tips for bread success:

· Most bakery products have a “best before date”, which refers to quality. Your bakery products can still be eaten after this date, but may no longer be at their best.

· Sliced loaves and other bread products are all great for freezing and can be toasted from frozen as and when needed.

· Make slightly stale bread and leftover crusts into breadcrumbs by whizzing up in a food processor – these can be stored in the freezer to use later.

· Storing bread in the fridge can make it go stale faster. The best place to store a loaf is in a cool, dry cupboard or your bread bin.

· Freshen up a day old loaf by running it briefly under cold water and popping it in a hot oven for 10 minutes.