The UK will bin 8m pumpkins after Halloween, the equivalent of enough pumpkin pie to feed the entire nation, research has found.
Almost three-fifths (58%) of consumers buy pumpkins to hollow out and carve, of whom only a third bother to cook the leftover but edible innards, according to the annual #PumpkinRescue campaign.
More than half (51%) of buyers bin the flesh, adding to the UK’s food waste mountain rather than cooking or composting it.
The study was commissioned by stock brand Knorr. Another, by environmental waste charity Hubbub, found that more than half (52%) of Halloween pumpkin buyers in the UK would welcome recipes to help them make more of the leftovers.
Halloween is a significant money-spinner for supermarkets and is now second to Christmas in terms of festive retail. An estimated 10m pumpkins are grown in the UK every year, 95% of which will be hollowed out in lanterns for Halloween and the rest used in recipes. Some pumpkins are inedible and specified as “for ornamental use only” but the flesh of the majority is edible. Suppliers say this year’s erratic weather has led to many larger-than-average pumpkins.