Packaging adds 20 per cent to cost of Waitrose fruit

The findings come as environment minister Ben Bradshaw said shoppers should boycott heavily packaged fruit and vegetables in order to pressurise supermarkets to be more environmentally friendly.

The Standard found a shopper at Waitrose who fills a large bowl with fresh fruit worth £12.41 can expect to spend an additional £4.67 if they choose produce that is pre-packaged rather than loose.

Unnecessary food packaging includes cardboard containers, plastic cartons, polystyrene inserts and cellophane wrapping.

Noelle Virtue, senior research officer for the Women's Institute, which campaigns against excessive food packaging, said the real cost was even higher.

"For every £50 spent on food by the average household, roughly £8 goes towards packaging, adding approximately £470 to the average annual bill," she said. "Consumers then pay again for the disposal of that packaging through their council tax.

"Clearly there is a lot of room for improvement, especially in the area of fruit and vegetables, where it makes no sense at all to encase the products in wrapping.

"Supermarkets need to remove the products which are in wrapping from their shelves - by doing so they would radically reduce excess waste.

"They also need to replace the plastic bags provided for loose fruit and vegetables with recyclable brown paper bags." The Standard found the cost of pre-packaged produce at Waitrose was an average of 21 per cent higher than loose, but on some products the difference was almost 100 per cent. Four Rocha pears on a plastic tray encased in cellophane cost £1.99 but the same fruit loose cost just £1.

Miss Virtue said most fruit bought loose was of a better quality and tasted better than packaged produce.

"If they can breathe better and are not sweating in cellophane, they tend to be better all round," she said.

In 2000, government researchers found that many of the wrappers used in packaged foods could harm food. For example, polystyrene in plastic can contain residual chemicals, while cling film contains plasticisers that can leach into oily foods.

Mr Bradshaw told MPs: "Consumers have a part to play in encouraging producers to reduce unnecessary waste by choosing goods that are not heavily packaged, buying loose rather than prepackaged food and re-using their bags."

He said he personally followed this advice, except in the case of delicate produce such as raspberries and cucumbers sold in a plastic skin to prevent rotting.

The minister has previously urged shoppers to ditch packaging they deem wasteful at the check-out so supermarkets have to bear the costs of getting rid of it.

The Government is also demanding retail chiefs tackle the packaging and waste mountain they cause.

Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy announced yesterday his firm is committed to reducing by a quarter packaging on its own branded products by 2010. All packaging will also be labelled as to whether it can be reused, recycled or composted.

Green pressure group WRAP is drawing up plans for industry-wide labelling on packaging disposal. Chief executive Dr Liz Goodwin said: "It is very important consumers are given clear and consistent messages, regardless of where they shop."

A spokeswoman for Waitrose said: "Reducing packaging is a key priority for us and we have reduced the weight of product packaging by 33 per cent since 2000.

"This is a long-term commitment. We are conducting research to establish shoppers' views on this issue and assess the effect on quality and shelf life of selling products loose."