Food Waste in the Home ~ just stop it willya!

I have just read an interesting article on Food Waste in The Telegraph;

“UK yearly food waste: in charts

Britons throw away an average of six meals a week in food waste, according to Wrap, the environmental campaign group. The Telegraph explains the key figures”

I am always reading articles like this and I have to say they really get up my goat, to mis-coin a phrase.

Apart from abject poverty where people have no cooking facilities or fridges or can’t afford the fuel why oh why do people throw away so much perfectly good food? Is it laziness, lack of education, lack of inspiration, fear of eating something that has gone off or, probably, a combination of these factors and more?

Here’s a chart from the article showing how much food we in the UK throw away daily. Actually not “we”, I have no part in this abysmal behaviour!

                    

So, to break this down a bit …

Sausages

I’m not sure if this refers to the common or garden banger or all sausages including chorizo and salami etc. but, whichever it is, it looks as if we throw away more than 1.5 m a day. If bangers then, yes they are not good keepers but if raw they can be used up in soups, bean stews, stuffing, Toad in the Hole and so on or, if they haven’t already been frozen ,freeze them whilst you have a think. If cooked then  add to sandwiches, soups (again), pizza, pasta to name but a few.

Generally speaking dried sausages such as chorizo and salami have a lovely long shelf life (although, of course, do check on the packet). I can think of so many delicious things to do with chorizo always keep some in the fridge. 

Bananas

I cannot abide a banana (although I will work with them!) yet I came up with over 20 good ideas for bananas, including over-ripe bananas, in my book Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers and at least a couple more in this blog. If I can do that with my bananaphobia surely those who actually like the buggers would be able to think what to do with them! 

Tomatoes

Well really, how ridiculous! Roast ‘em, they’ll be good for days and are lovely. Or make a sauce. If you don’t need a sauce make one anyway and freeze it! Here's a tomato sauce recipe for you. Add them to soups, sarnies, salads and pretty well anything else you fancy.

Potatoes 

According to the chart we waste almost 6,000,000 potatoes a day! A day!!! I am not sure if these are raw or cooked but either way there’s no excuse. Raw potatoes keep well if kept in a cool dark place and (interesting little known fact coming up) stored away from onions which make them go off! Potatoes that are going green or sprouting are OK to eat if you cut away the green and/or remove the sprouts.

There are numerous ways to use up cooked potatoes from Bubble & Squeak to Krumplinudli, lots more ideas can be found on this blog and in my book.

Sliced Ham

Ham can be added to numerous dishes including pizza, pasta, egg dishes and lots more or it can be frozen short term, say three months, well wrapped. As you can see it doesn't inspire me much so only 12 good ideas (at least!) for leftover ham in my book!

Eggs

Again - exasperating.!  Eggs keep quite well (3-4 weeks), even if not in the fridge in the UK, (see here for how eggs are treated and stored differently depending where you live) and older eggs have the advantage of being great for making meringues – my foolproof (honest!) recipe is in my book as are storage and freezing guidelines and loads of other ideas and recipes.

Bread

Not shown on the above chart but apparently the most discarded item of food seems to be bread. According to Wrap we throw away 24,000,000 slices a day! How utterly ridiculous.

I have given lots of ideas for leftover and stale bread on this very blog (see here for one unusual, quick, easy, cheap and delicious suggestion - Fried Bread Curry!). There are 20 or more other ideas in Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers and I haven’t even started yet, I can think of lots more.

Two for One Offers – I have a Good Idea!

A couple of days ago Tesco was offering Two for One bags of prepared lettuce, just like they said they had stopped doing.

There has been a lot of talk recently about how these offers, particularly on prepared lettuce, causes food waste. Well not with us, it causes sharing!

If we get two bags of prepared lettuce for the price of one and we don’t need two can you guess what we do? We give one away. Simples! It doesn’t cost us anything, it doesn’t cost the store anything, it doesn’t cost the planet anything and it makes someone happy! 

The other day we bought a box of clementines reduced from £4.00 to £1.20 and gave half to our neighbours. 24 fruit in a box so sturdy it may have cost £1.20 itself!

PS. I have also just read that we throw away 86,000 tonnes of cakes, pastries and doughtnuts a year – we must be mad!

Come on Britain - get a grip!

PPS. Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers has recipes and suggestions for over 450 potential leftover food items and tackles not only food waste but also the waste of good eating opportunity. It is a lot cheaper than the £60 a month that we Brits (not me) waste on food per month!

Great preview here!