Written by Elisabeth Edvardsen for Hippy Shopper
Food waste. It never stops to amaze me how much food we actually throw away each year.
Personally I am a repetitive food waster. I go to the shops and get mesmerised by the colours in the fruit and vegetable aisles – usually post-work and without a shopping list – and end up buying more than I need or will eat over the next couple of days. What usually happens? At the end of the week I will find a half full salad bag or a lonely courgette at the back of my fridge, too far gone to even attempt to rescue parts of it. So in the bin it goes.
According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, UK households throw away 8.3 million tonnes of food every year, most of it could actually have been eaten. This amounts up to an average of £680 a year thrown out with the rubbish.
Why are we wasting so much food?
Well, a lot if it falls into the categories of ‘cooking or preparing too much’ or ‘not using food in time’. How often have you not bought a bag of apples because they looked delicious, only to forget about them until you re-discover them a little soggy and brown. Not so appetising anymore, are they?
Another reason for food waste is simply because people’s plans change. You might have planned to use that mince before its use-by-date tomorrow, but then a last minute call from a friend sees you heading to a restaurant in town.
And how are you with leftovers? In the freezer for another day or can’t stomach eating one day old food?
How can I cut my food waste?
There is a group of people called freegans who live according to alternative strategies. Combining the words “free” and “vegan”, Freegans avoid buying any products to the greatest degree possible. Instead of heading to their local shop entrance, they head to the back of buildings to rummage through the rubbish of retailers, offices, residences and other facilities to recover food and beverages, as well as other goods.
But if this is not your cup of tea, here are some tips on how you can reduce your food waste and perhaps even save a few pennies in the long run.
- Buy Local fruit and vegetables – Become best friends with your local fruit and vegetable stall and visit it often. This way you can control how much you buy, and ensure that you use the produce before it goes off.
- Keep your fridge organized – There is no point buying lots of food, only to keep it in the fridge to be thrown away because it is past the use-by-date. However, best-before food is often edible after the date – use your nose and eyes to check if it’s gone off! When you restock your fridge after the weekly food shop, pull old items forward and place products with longer use-by-dates in the back. It also helps to have a rummage in the fridge every three to four days to keep track on what you’ve got.
- Use your freezer wisely – Freeze any food that can be frozen immediately if you’re not planning on using it soon. And if you don’t want to run to the shop every other day, keep frozen fruit and vegetables at hand for your 5-a-day fix.
- Ripe or not ripe, that is the question – Do you know how to store fruit and vegetables? The flavour of tomatoes is ruined if you store them in the fridge, so unless they are cut, don’t store them
in the fridge! Keep fruit that is ripening quicker than others separate as this can ruin the rest of the bunch. - Plan ahead and love your leftovers – Do you know how to store fruit and vegetables? The flavour of tomatoes is ruined if you store them in the fridge, so unless they are cut, don’t store them
in the fridge! Keep fruit that is ripening quicker than others separate as this can ruin the rest of the bunch.
