London, 2016-Jul-22 — /EPR Retail News/ — Britons are eating an average of three per week, which is 12 kg per year, and rank them as a favourite healthy snack. However, despite our love affair with the banana, we are binning 162 million each year.
New research from Sainsbury’s has revealed the nation’s particular preferences are contributing to the ‘bin-nana’ trend. While 81% of people either like or love the fruit, and almost 20% eat one every day, nearly 30% will bin a banana if it shows even a minor bruise, or a single black mark on the skin.
Paul Crewe, Head of Sustainability for Sainsbury’s said: “To bring this to life, if you lined up the 162 million wasted bananas from end-to-end, they would stretch from London to Wellington in New Zealand! I think it’s safe to say that’s a whole bunch of banana-drama!
Bananas are clearly very popular, but so many of us won’t touch them unless they’re anything short of perfect. With approximately three bananas per loaf, banana bread is a brilliant way of saving bin-bound fruit.
And Sainsbury’s is leading by example – from this week, we’ll be trialling loaves of banana bread baked fresh in store, using fruit at or after its sell-by date. The bread will be available at selected in-store bakeries, and we estimate that this trial alone will save over 1,000 bananas. It’s a really great way of using up food that could otherwise be thrown away – simply because it’s deemed ‘not perfect’.”
The banana loaves are being sold at seven selected Sainsbury’s stores and, if the trials prove successful, could be expanded across the UK. The move follows the introduction of Sainsbury’s Waste less, Save more programme to help customers across the UK help cut down on the amount of food they unnecessarily throw away. Each year the average family bins over £700 of food, with 7 million tonnes of avoidable food waste going to landfill from UK homes.
Paul Crewe from Sainsbury’s continues: “Currently only 4.1% of households use bananas to make bread but it’s the perfect way to reduce waste when you don’t like the look of them anymore. We’re going to give it a try in our stores and we want customers to join us at home too.”
For any customers wishing to make their own banana bread, a simple recipe can be found on the Food Rescue website: https://www.sainsburysfoodrescue.co.uk/recipe/598
Recipe: Nutty Topped Banana Bread
Prep time: 15m
Cooking time: 55m
Ready: 1h 10m
Serves: 12 persons
Ingredients:
225g pack sponge mix
1 medium egg, beaten
75ml cold water
4 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
½ teaspoon sunflower oil
15g demerara sugar
Optional:
25g walnuts, chopped
100g sultanas
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease and line the bottom of a 1lb loaf tin with the sunflower oil and greaseproof paper.
Make the sponge mix using the egg and water, to pack instructions, then stir in the bananas and cinnamon.
Using an electric whisk, beat together for 2-3 minutes, then fold in the sultanas. Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle over the walnuts and sugar.
Bake for 55 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Allergy tip: If your child has a nut allergy, replace the walnuts with a sprinkling of porridge oats on top instead. This recipe contains naturally occurring sugars.
Britain’s love affair with bananas in numbers
1. Our top ways to eat bananas are as they come, on cereal or granola, or in smoothies.
2. 59% of us love them because they’re great for healthy snacking on the go.
3. 47% love the energy boost a banana gives.
4. 45% of us like that they don’t need washing.
5. Other things we love about bananas are that they’re easy to transport, versatile to eat and kids love them.
6. 35% of us will break a bruised it off of a banana and eat the rest.
7. 25% don’t mind eating the bruised bits.
8. 13% won’t eat a banana if the skin is green in any area.
9. 11% never eat bananas.
10. Of the 19% of people who don’t like bananas – taste, texture and smell were the top three reasons.
For corporate press enquiries please contact:
press_office@sainsburys.co.uk
call 020 7695 7295
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- Sainsbury’s tackles banana wastage by trialling loaves of banana bread baked fresh in store
Source: JSainsbury