These are the five most wasted fruits and vegetables. All of these items are available loose in some supermarkets already, meaning it is possible to make these items available for sale more widely without packaging.

We have selected the first five easy wins as a means of encouraging immediate action from supermarkets. This is an opportunity for supermarkets to show they are willing for further voluntary action, which will focus on a greater range of fruit and vegetables as a next step.

Whilst policy changes can be extremely effective, they take time to implement, especially when they are not universally accepted (in this case the supermarkets may be keen to delay such measures). Until stronger policy is enforced, we want to take action to push for positive moves away from over-packaging.

Whilst there is sometimes a loose option for a selection of fruit and vegetables, according to WRAP’s research, 80% of apples and bananas are currently sold in plastic packaging. We are urging supermarkets to remove the packaged option for the five selected fruit and vegetables.

This can be the case for certain fruits, such as soft summer fruits. However, WRAP’s research in 2022 showed 77,000 tonnes of food waste could be prevented by removing packaging from the top five most wasted fresh fruit and veg products.

For the selection of fruit and vegetables we are focusing on here, there is often an unpackaged version available so removing the plastic packaged option should be straightforward.

We understand that in some cases a loose option is sometimes available. However, increasingly packaging is used and defines the minimum quantity that can be chosen by a customer, which may be more or less than the customer would choose to buy. Packaging is largely used for convenience. It is a convenient way to label products, but by no means the only way. It makes transport and storage logistics more straightforward. It also overcomes the requirement for in-house infrastructure such as weighing scales.

The UK Plastic Pact is a voluntary commitment to which supermarkets have committed but there is little evidence of significant progress. By acting to #ChooseLoose, supermarkets can clearly communicate their willingness for action and positive change under the UK Plastics Pact.

In supermarkets the packaging of organic products prevents contamination with non-organic products. Packaging also prevents consumers from paying less by weighing organic products as non-organic.

It’s always preferable for the environment to reduce packaging, before using recycling as an option. With soft plastic take-back schemes, it is not clear from supermarkets where this plastic is going for recycling as infrastructure in the UK is currently very limited.

Whilst quite a few fruit and vegetables come naturally in skins which are always removed before eating anyway, such as bananas, in other cases, it’s always recommended that fruit and vegetables are well rinsed before eating, regardless of whether they have been packaged or not.

This campaign has recognised this as a barrier to choosing loose, and we are working on ensuring that supermarkets clearly communicate pricing for loose options.

In the same way we’re now pretty good at remembering reusable shopping bags, we’re suggesting you can also take smaller cloth bags just for fresh fruit and veg to contain it and keep it from rolling around.

It certainly can be convenient to just grab a packet of apples or potatoes and pop them in your trolley, but it’s worth thinking about how many of these items you might throw away because they don’t get used in time (and therefore how much money you have wasted on these items you did not need). This may help you work out that instead of a regular packet of six apples, you actually only need 4, for example.

Figures are calculated and provided by WRAP. They are outputs from models, rather than actual figures, but provide the best available estimates. We calculate how many pieces of packaging could be saved through preventing packaging by taking the WRAP tonnage figures of plastic film and dividing by the average weight of a produce bag (5g)