British families throw away a third of a ton of leftover food every year, a study revealed today.
Leftover roast dinners and the unwanted remains of Chinese takeaways are the items most commonly scraped into the bin.
Parents who over-estimate family meal quantities and fussy children who turn their nose up at dinner time also contribute to the high figure.
Food waste: The typical family throws out 6.5kg of food waste each week - or a third of a ton a year, a new survey has found
The average home throws out 745lbs or 338kgs of leftover meals each year - or 6.5kg each week.
Six in ten families regularly fail to finish everything on their plates, so end up scraping the left-overs into the food bin, the survey of 2,000 households found.
Pasta bake, curry and rice, fish and chips and spaghetti bolognaise were among the most thrown out meals.
A spokesman for food waste disposal firm InSinkErator, which commissioned the research, said: 'Throwing away the odd bit of food from each meal might not seem like a lot, but when you add that up over a week or year, it's a staggering amount.
TOP 10 MOST THROWN AWAY MEALS
Roast dinner
Chinese takeaway
Pasta bake
Curry and rice
Fish and chips
Spaghetti bolognaise
Stir-fry
Lasagne
Risotto
Pies
'Not only is it horrible to see how much food gets wasted, but if you think of how much you spend buying that food in the first place, it can be quite unsettling.
'But it's interesting to see that Chinese takeaway is one of the main meals we throw away. Many people order too much and end up struggling to eat it all.
'If you or members of your family find it difficult to clear their plate and your food waste bin is bulging, cooking less will not only mean you end up saving yourself money but you won't have to deal with messy job of throwing the food waste away.'
Out of all the food we throw away, almost one fifth is made up of leftovers and cooked meals that have gone uneaten - the equivalent of around three full plates each week.
Sixty per cent of Brits admitted they do not always eat everything that is put in front of them. Separately, 70 per cent said they usually have to scrape uneaten food off their children's plates as well.
Discarded: Roast dinners and Chinese takeaways are the most frequently thrown out meals
Almost one in three said they leave food because they have simply put too much on their plate while another 19 per cent don't like the taste of what is put in front of them.
And when it comes to children, 41 per cent leave something because they are too fussy to eat it.
The study also found that 46 per cent of Brits admitted they worry about the amount of food they throw away with another 56 per cent concerned about the cost.
It also emerged 62 per cent of Brits think dealing with food waste is one of the most unhygienic and disliked jobs in the kitchen.
A spokesman for InSinkErator added: 'It is incredible how much we leave on our plates, and how it all adds up.
'As they say as soon as you start to measure it, then you can start to do something about it; so many of us have no idea of the amount of left over food we throw away.
'Unsurprisingly, most of hate the messy business of binning left overs. It is disgusting, dirty, an inconvenience and very unhygienic.'