Endless series of TV chef programmes urging people to cook fresh meals from scratch may be contributing to Britain's 8.3 million-ton household food waste problem.
Research suggests that as fresh food has a shorter shelf-life than processed ingredients, families are probably throwing more of it away.
The report, by the Sustainable Consumption Unit, adds that consumers were more likely to order a takeaway than use up healthy leftovers.
EIF News & Features cookery correspondent, Felicity Scotch-Bonnet, said: "I have never heard such a load of tosh in all my born days.
"I'll tell you how these so-called celebrity chefs cause waste - no-one can cook their recipes, that's how! You know how to roast a chicken, because your mother showed you - but when you try to do it like some berk on the telly, it all goes tits-up and you end up throwing the whole lot away!
"Get them off the box, I say!"
Mrs Nuala Spools, at number 33, agreed, adding that she no longer tries TV recipes: "Oh no, dear, not with my brood - they and Mr Spools won't touch anything that's not out of a packet or a tin.
"I've tried - believe me, I've tried. But what can one woman do," she sobbed.
