PM urges people not to waste food

Gordon Brown wants all of us to be more careful about what we throw away after a new report claimed each family in the UK throws out £420 worth of perfectly good food every year.

The prime minister says people need to start keeping things like fruit and veg in the fridge, as well as planning meals, so less gets put in the bin.

The government study says the UK wastes 4m tonnes of food every year.

It also found that those on lower incomes spend proportionally more on basics such as milk, eggs and bread - precisely the foods that have seen the biggest price rises recently.

Tamasine McQueen is married to Steve and has two children, Jude and Saul-John.

She reckons she spends around £200 every week on food.

That's one big supermarket shop on most Saturdays and then trips most days for the basics - things like milk, bread and fruit.

She said: "I do keep some fruit in a bowl on the side but with two hungry children not a lot of it goes to waste.

"Our budget's already quite tight so all this advice about planning meals is all very well and good but we already do it."

And her husband Steve agrees.

He said: "The advice isn't advice. It's just stating the obvious. And people who are struggling and looking to feed their children in a good way do this anyway."

Tamasine says she wants something different from the government.

"We need to start giving our children healthy foods but the healthy food prices are going up. So is Gordon Brown going to act?" she said.

The PM is meeting other world leaders at the G8 summit in Japan to discuss what to do abut the rising cost of living.

He told reporters: "People recognise that the high food prices in Britain - the price of bread, the price of eggs, the price of milk - this is happening all over the world and we have got to have a global solution to what is a global problem."