Nearly half of people in the UK who celebrate Christmas throw away food or drink during or shortly after the holidays, according to new research from Gousto. The findings point to continued overbuying and food waste during the festive period, despite rising household costs and growing awareness of sustainability.
Gousto’s Festive Feasting 2025 Study, conducted by Opinium among a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults between 7th and 11th November 2025, surveyed 1,863 weighted respondents who celebrate Christmas. It found that 49% admit to discarding at least one festive food or drink item. The figure rises to 67% in Northern Ireland and 58% in London.
Christmas dinner leftovers are the most commonly wasted items. Nearly 1 in 5 respondents, or 19.2%, said they throw away leftovers such as turkey, potatoes and vegetables. Other items frequently discarded include:
- Fruit or vegetables: 16.3%
- Cream: 14.0%
- Bread: 13.9%
- Mince pies: 12.7%
- Cheese: 11.3%
- Milk: 9.7%
- Chocolates or sweets: 9.5%
- Alcohol in unfinished bottles: 7.1%
Based on the proportion of adults who celebrate Christmas and those who waste festive puddings, combined with Office for National Statistics population data, Gousto estimates that around five million Christmas puddings go uneaten each year.
Younger adults are more likely to waste food than older age groups. Gen Z respondents reported the highest rates, with 24.5% discarding Christmas dinner leftovers compared with the national average of 19.2%. They were also more likely to throw away fruit and vegetables at 21.6% and cheese at 19.7%.
Gender differences also emerged. Men were nearly twice as likely as women to pour away milk, at 13.2% compared with 6.5%, although this reflects self reported behaviour rather than total volume wasted.
Regional variation was pronounced. Belfast recorded the highest levels of festive food waste, with 27.4% discarding Christmas dinner leftovers, 27.6% wasting mince pies and 24.3% throwing away cheese. When measured by the proportion of residents admitting to discarding at least one item, the ten most wasteful cities were:
- Belfast: 66.5%
- Leeds: 55.1%
- London: 52.9%
- Manchester: 51.9%
- Birmingham: 51.6%
- Glasgow: 51.3%
- Nottingham: 51.0%
- Liverpool: 48.3%
- Newcastle: 47.2%
- Plymouth: 44.3%
Brighton ranked as the least wasteful city, with 66% of residents reporting no festive food waste at all.
Sophie Nahmad, Gousto’s lead recipe developer, said: “It is common to overbuy in the excitement of the big day. But there is far too much going to waste that could be repurposed into tasty meals to last until New Year. A bit of planning and a few smart leftover recipes can turn spare roasties, greens and cheese into brilliant brunches and Boxing Day dinners.”
She suggested several ways to reuse festive leftovers, including turning pigs in blankets into bao buns with Brussels sprout slaw, making pulled turkey sliders with cranberry and Stilton, transforming mince pies into cheesecake bites, and assembling leftover grazing boards for Boxing Day.
Gousto, a certified B Corp, says its portion controlled recipe boxes help reduce food waste compared with traditional supermarket shopping.
