A report by the Waste and Resources Action Plan (WRAP) shows UK households throw away a third of the food they buy. This would mean that Reading throws away £27m worth of food a year.

Paul Gittings, lead councillor for environment and sustainability, said: "I was pretty shocked by the findings of the WRAP report. The amount being wasted is a concern, especially as there are plenty of places in the world where the food we are wasting would make all the difference, so I'll be suggesting at the next cabinet that we parcel it all up and send it to them. Just think show much that will save us on the landfill tax."

A council spokeman told us: "It's essential that everyone does their bit to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill. In the last month we've learned a valuable lesson here at RBC. We'll be cutting down the size of the finger buffets in the Mayor's Parlour now that Chris Maskell has retired from the post."