Thousands of tons of perfectly good Takeaway food goes straight into the bin every year claims new research.

A survey by UK waste management company BusinessWaste.co.uk found that over '99% of bagged salads given away by takeaway food establishments are never eaten, with many thrown into waste bins unopened'.

The company claims public waste bins nears some curry houses and takeaway kebab shops are often filled to overflowing with bagged salads as customers dump them at the first opportunity.

"We tried to find out who eats these salads, and we found literally nobody prepared to confess that they did," says BusinessWaste.co.uk spokesman Mark Hall, "In our opinion, they're nothing but a huge waste of food. Thousands of tons going to waste."

In a survey of 3500 people at several locations in the UK were asked what they did with free salads given away as an accompaniment to curries or kebabs.

• 94% Throw it in the bin without opening
• 1% Put it in the fridge, and throw it away later
• 6% Leave it in the shop or give it back to the delivery person
• 0% Eat it

"A plastic bag's probably not the best way to present a salad, to be honest," says Mark Hall, "Customers have a mental image of the food being stuffed in there by bare hand, which it most certainly isn't. But it's a hard image for most people to shake."

When asked why they avoided takeaway salads some of the responses included:

• "I don't know where it's been."
• "I've been told that it's dirty." / "... it's out of date." / "...they don't wash it."
• "I might get food poisoning off it." / "I heard somebody good food poisoning off it."
• "I hate salad."

Mr Hall was impressed with the uptake in recycling “Although this is waste at its most stupid it costs businesses ten of £1000s and the environmental harm, I’m pleased to say this year the majority 78% have told us they put the food in the general waste bin and the plastic into the recycling bin, which is up from 5% in 2017 so that’s something to takeaway I guess."