In an effort to engage people in an issue that affects the entire British public, Sainsbury's have conducted a brand new study to discover which popular soaps waste the least food.
Credit: ITV
Analysing over 20 hours of recent episodes of the shows to see how the characters shop, store, cook and eat food, it was Emmerdale that came out on top, followed by Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and EastEnders respectively.
Head of Sustainability at Sainsbury's, Paul Crewe said: "Soaps represent everyday British life - albeit a very dramatic version! With so many of us tuning it each week, what better way to bring the issue of food waste to the forefront."
It was discovered that characters such as the Dingles from Emmerdale are the best at not over-filling meal time plates, especially when it comes to breakfast.
Meanwhile, the residents of Hollyoaks were the most sensible and savvy shoppers, with Darren Osbourne's grocery shop taking up just two small paper bags.
Every soap however did show room for improvement, with the classic bowl of fruit cropping up in every show showing apples in the bowl - they should actually be in the fridge!
This news comes as it was revealed Swadlincote, Derbyshire would receive £1 million worth of investment through Sainsbury's Waste Less, Save More initiative, becoming a test-bed of ideas and innovation in the hopes of dramatically cutting food waste by 50%. A group of locals involved in the project came together, hoping to spur the town into action and to lead the charge.
Paul Crewe added: "Swadlincote beat off 188 other UK cities and towns to receive £1 million investment to test the latest innovations and ideas to halve food waste in the town which we hope means a saving of £350 per household over the coming year!"
The research was carried out in association with Icaro and is based on watching 10 episodes of each soap.
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