A campaign has been launched to highlight the unknown waste of turkey legs in the UK.
According to Field & Flower, millions of pairs of turkey legs are wasted each year due to consumer demand for turkey crowns.
Of the approximately 10 million turkeys sold at Christmas, around 70 per cent – or 7 million – are estimated to be sold as crowns, leaving behind 14 million surplus turkey legs, approximately 7,000 tonnes of meat.
There is a limited market for such a large amount of surplus turkey legs in this short period of time, so most are either wasted, forced into storage, or sold at a very low price, leaving farmers out of pocket.
Field & Flower is tackling this problem by selling the legs on its site at just £14.98 for 1kg and donating a pair of high welfare turkey legs to food redistribution charity FareShare for every turkey crown sold.
Field & Flower co-founder, James Mansfield comments: “People and environment are at the heart of our business, and we strive to do our best for both. As a commercial business, alongside our whole turkeys, we sell crowns due to consumer demand, however we are doing our best to ensure that the surplus turkey legs are either sold to customers via our website or donated to FareShare. Either way, the farmer will be paid a fair price, and food waste will be avoided.”
Last year, Field & Flower sold 770 pairs of turkey legs and donated a further 250 pairs which fed around 1,000 people in need on Christmas day across the South West of England via FareShare South West.
This year, the retailer is expecting to donate more than 550 turkey legs to FareShare South West, while customers looking for a more cost-efficient Christmas dinner can purchase the brilliant quality poultry from as little as £14.98.
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