LOVE food but hate waste? Use your loaf to make the most of your bread.

According to a new survey by group Love Food Hate Waste, nearly half of people in the country say they eat bread every day, but that most people don’t get around to using it up.

In fact, a quarter of people have often ended up throwing bread away before reaching the end of the loaf – 18 percent even admitted to binning a forgotten loaf before opening it.

The research marks the beginning of the group’s Use Your Loaf campaign, which has set out to raise awareness of the amount of bread that goes to waste nationwide.

Emma Marsh, Head of the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, said: “Bread is a favourite on our plates and in our lunch boxes, but sometimes if we don’t finish a loaf, it goes stale and ends up in the bin.

“This doesn’t have to be the case - bread is really versatile. That’s why we’re excited to launch our Use Your Loaf campaign, as there are lots of simple things we can do to use it up or store it differently, to reduce food waste and save money.”

To help spread the word, Love Food Hate Waste has joined forces with former Great British Bake-Off champion, Nancy Birtwhistle.

Nancy, who impressed the judges of last year’s contest with her no nonsense approach to baking, has spoken frequently on the importance of being thrifty with food.

She said: “I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Use Your Loaf campaign to remind people that our beloved bread can be used in so many ways.

“Leftover crusts can be blitzed into breadcrumbs and stale bread is fantastic for making bread and butter pudding, croutons or garlic bread.”

To help the country get the most out of their loaf, the team have shared their five top tips for bread success: most bakery products have a ‘best before date’, which refers to quality. Bakery products can still be eaten after this date, but may no longer be at their best, sliced loaves and other bread products are all great for freezing and can be toasted from frozen as and when needed, make slightly stale bread and leftover crusts into breadcrumbs by whizzing up in a food processor – these can be stored in the freezer to use later, storing bread in the fridge can make it go stale faster. The best place to store a loaf is in a cool, dry cupboard or your bread bin and finally, freshen up a day old loaf by running it briefly under cold water and popping it in a hot oven for 10 minutes.