In a bid to tackle food waste, the government-funded Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is urging bakery manufacturers to take advantage of recent EU legislative changes on bread weight.
WRAP has been working with the Federation of Bakers in a bid to encourage more firms to launch new mid-sized 600g loaves, said WRAP's program manager for household food waste prevention, Andrew Parry.
This follows changes to European directive 2007/45/EC relating to nominal bread sizes. The directive has relaxed UK laws that have traditionally meant that loaves weighing over 300g have had to be sold in multiples of 400g.
"A reduced loaf size would go some way to help with the millions of tonnes of food that is thrown away by UK consumers every year," said Parry. "Our research shows that over 30% of people live on their own. These people would certainly benefit from having more choice, and an in-between alternative to the 400g and 800g loaf, is a sensible way to help them achieve waste reduction."
Despite the changes in legislation, only a "very limited" number of manufacturers and retailers have launched the medium-sized loaf formats, said Parry. Tesco, Warburtons and Northern Irish bakery Irwin's are some of the few to have launched 600g loaves.
"It's not just a case of manufacturers changing their loaf sizes, retailers must also follow. I have tried to look for the Warburtons 600g loaf on shelves, but I just can't find it anywhere," added Parry.
However, it is thought that more bakery manufacturers and retailers will respond to the legislation changes when the directive is officially implemented in April 2009. At the moment it is still illegal to sell non-standard sizes, although Trading Standards have been advised against prosecuting manufacturers in the run up to the legislation changes, according a statement released by the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services.