The cost of wasted food in UK households is 10 billion pounds a year, nearly two billion pounds higher than previously estimated, according to a new research by the Waste & Resources Action Programme.
The research gives detailed new insights into the nature and amount of food waste thrown away in the UK and is believed to be the most comprehensive study of its kind ever carried out.
Researchers also found that more than half the good food thrown out, worth 6 billion pounds a year, is bought and simply left unused or untouched.
It revealed that the average household throws out 420 pounds of good food a year. For the average family with children it is higher at 610 pounds.
The research found that salad, fruit and bread were most commonly wasted and 60 per cent of all dumped food was untouched.
Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said: "These findings are staggering in their own right, but at a time when global food shortages are in the headlines this kind of wastefulness becomes even more shocking".
For example, each day 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots, 5,500 whole chickens and 440,000 ready meals are thrown away in the UK.