UK households are throwing out £10 billion-worth of edible food every year, a study revealed today.

The average household throws out one-third of all food bought, wasting £420 each year or £610 for those with children, the Waste and Resources Action Programme said.

The figure is £2 billion higher than previously estimated, the report said.

The Government described the figures as "staggering" and "shocking".

Researchers found that more than half the discarded food, worth £6 billion a year, was bought but left untouched. Each day householders throw out 1.3 million unopened yoghurt pots, 5,500 whole chickens and 440,000 ready meals, according to the report.

It found £1 billion worth of discarded products were still "in date", and that local authorities were spending the same amount each year disposing of food waste.

Most of the wasted food went to landfill sites where it emitted methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Cutting food waste could limit carbon dioxide emissions by 18 million tons - the equivalent of taking one in five cars off UK roads, the report concluded.

Environment minister Joan Ruddock said: "These findings are staggering, but at a time when global food shortages are in the headlines, this kind of wastefulness is even more shocking.

"This costs consumers three times over."