If you're on of those people who despises food waste, like me...

[Thisusernameistakenagain]

Why?
I cant put my finger on it. I would understand if I were brought up impoverished but I wasnt and neither were my parents. They had less than me but definitely not unhealthy or malnourished etc. I didnt have it drummed into me to not waste food either. I just despise it!
Pre covid I had friends round. I made potato wedges to soak up the wine. We didn't use them all. When I came down in the morning one friend had kindly cleaned up, and threw the remaining ones straight in the bin! Almost a full tray.

I was recently seeing someone and when they stayed over I asked them to take home food theyd brought and not consumed as it wasnt the sort of thing I'd eat. 'Eew no! Wouldnt eat it after being in the car not fridge! Chuck it!'

I've lived with people who will make a whole pie,if not all eaten in one setting, half goes in the bin. It really winds me up. I don't think about the 'starving people in other parts of the world' as justification for this sort of thing as it hardly directly affects.

But I'm pretty militant about it. I save food or freeze it if possible. Make stock from unused veg parts. Anything totally inedible goes in compost.
I'm the same with any sort of waste really. I accosted a neighbour going to the tip the other day and asked if I could take the plantpots he was chucking!

Why am I like this, with no 'cause and effect' reason?
Why are you? :)

Many people do not have enough to it, including many in this country. The smallest step I can make is not to waste any myself.

enough to eat

for me it feels like if there’s stuff going to waste, it means that I didn’t plan well enough

I think this is the crux of it for me. It’s not fully an environmental thing as I have hated food waste for much longer than I’ve been eco aware.

I think maybe it’s pleasure in efficiency? I am also a person who takes pride in cupboard organisation, perfectly tessellated suitcases and dishwashers, that sort of thing. Probably to a ridiculous extent, I will spend ages loading the dishwasher to get it all in and it takes longer than just washing up a couple of the items would have... I also like being efficient with my time - just time to unload the laundry while the egg boils, etc.

for me it feels like if there’s stuff going to waste, it means that I didn’t plan well enough

But you can't plan for appetites, unless you're the sort of person who insists on finishing everything on your plate after your full?

I think it's wrong to waste food, just feels awful when so many are hungry

We've thrown out half a pot of mouldy jam and a punnet of strawberries in last ten years

Apparently people waste £1378 of food a year per household

I'm much the same, I abhor waste.

Everything in my house gets eaten, leftovers are boxed up and kept for next day's lunch, anything which is truly waste goes into a food waste caddy and then into compost. It gives me so much satisfaction to create compost from grass clippings, leaves, food waste etc.

I also buy nearly all my clothes and accessories secondhand where possible, hardly use or buy makeup, and do my best to buy high quality items that will last.

I'm like this because it makes sense to me to live this way. It's efficient, saves money and is good for the environment; I think people with cooking in particular lack confidence in whether to keep leftovers, they weren't taught the sniff test to make sure that food is still ok to eat, for example.

I would love now some sort of bacterial composter for plastic waste, it would be a dream to be able to compost all the packaging and turn it into something fantastic for the garden.

I waste very little food.

Yes it's environmentally friendly but if I'm honest it's mostly motivated by selfishness in that I'm the only person in the house who shops for and prepares food (no I'm not a domestic slave, I enjoy cooking and DH doesn't so he does other household tasks to pull his weight).

By making use of everything I buy I shop less and save time/money.

Making soup from veg that's about to turn only takes minimal effort as does making stock (especially in the pressure cooker as it's much faster).

I might make some cheese scones to use up that last bit of cheddar and put them on a stew like dumplings and then turn leftover stew into a pasty.

Fresh herbs routinely get chopped and frozen or dried to be used later.

I suppose I also feel better about buying more expensive ingredients like high welfare meat/organic veg for example, because I know none of it will be wasted.

Finally given I like cooking I also see it as a bit of a challenge to make something really nice from leftovers/food soon to expire and quite enjoy rummaging in the fridge and coming up with or adapting recipes to incorporate them.

Apparently people waste £1378 of food a year per household

I've read stats like that on many occasion and wonder how it's worked out, that's around £25-30 pw.

Some people don't spend much more than that in the first place, we probably waste under £1 a week, so some people must be wasting an awful lot to make up the average.

I became very conscious not to waste food during lockdown 1.0, when we were only going to the supermarket once every three weeks and never got lucky enough to digest a delivery. I meal planned to the nth degree, nor wasting anything - an egg, half a small pot of cream etc.

I’ve continued, and thrown very little away now. I’ve been able to reliably meal plan, because I know that we are all eating our main meals at home (DH works long hours so often isn’t home for dinner, but never seems to know whether he will or won’t be until the last minute, which makes planning harder). I am also WFH, so I can prep some meals during the day. We also have a massive freezer, which is useful as I can stock up, freeze large trays of eg raw chicken breasts into the portions I need to cook with etc.

Ds also eats pretty much anything, which helps with making sure leftovers are eaten for lunch or dinner the next day.

My parents were born in the 40s, when very little was wasted. Growing up, we ate very traditional, similarly foods most days eg meat and three veg, fish and three veg, soups (with veg) etc, which meant that they wasted very little.

Judas don’t apologise, it was interesting. Your mum sounds so resourceful.

minipie I think I’m like you - I love a really clean, well-organised fridge in particular. Again probably a bit of a reaction against my DM’s way of doing things. I love using odd bits of things to make something really nice - its so satisfying.

@WorraLiberty I know, it’s not entirely rational! No matter how well I plan I can’t account for things like plans changing, e.g if DH went to the pub after work and didn’t need dinner (pre-covid). There are always going to be things like that, and I know it’s not entirely possible to avoid, but it still bothers me. It’s just a weird thing my mind does!

ling on the third floor without lift meant that the way to the bin was awfully long. that kind of focusses the mind.

We were brought up like this.

My DH and I claim we are overweight because you were literally made to finish every scrap on your plate by parents, school dinner ladies, etc.

I also put things in the fridge if they are left over. And then in smaller and smaller dishes as they get brought out and partly eaten and put back in the fridge again...

I hate food waste and plan all my meals each week to avoid wasting food. Occasionally I might have to throw away the last dregs of a bag of salad or something but I try to avoid it where I can.

@NovemberR

We were brought up like this.

My DH and I claim we are overweight because you were literally made to finish every scrap on your plate by parents, school dinner ladies, etc.

I also put things in the fridge if they are left over. And then in smaller and smaller dishes as they get brought out and partly eaten and put back in the fridge again...

That's interesting.

It was sort of the opposite when I was growing up.

The onus was only putting on your plate what you intend to eat.

If after that you want more, that's fine - help yourself, but don't waste food by taking bigger portions than you need.

I suppose that meant my DM (and I suppose myself) were used to re-using leftovers because we didn't/don't insist every last morsel we cooked gets eaten.

In fact it's worked really well over lockdown and with DH working from home as we invariably have food from the night before that becomes his lunch in one form or another eg. Gammon in an omelette, chicken in chickpea "salad", leftover spaghetti becomes pasta frittata, stew becomes a pasty, leftover veg and mash turned into soup etc...

But you can't plan for appetites, unless you're the sort of person who insists on finishing everything on your plate after your full?

I tend to serve smallish portions and then seconds - if seconds aren’t wanted they can (usually) be saved.

Also throwing away a bit of a cooked meal because someone wasn’t that hungry bothers me less than throwing away gone off ingredients - that I really hate. Don’t know why!

I was bright up to eat everything on my plate, not waste any food. We weren’t well off by any means. I don’t recognise when I’m full now which can be a problem as I eat till I’m stuffed and I’m overweight.

DH won’t touch leftovers and I was appalled to see him throw out something before it was finished. He bought new cereal as the current one was low but just chucked out the final little bit and I use things till they are done!
I think he gets this from mil as she wasted lots of food and I’m still annoyed about the waste one Christmas, instead of saying she wanted crisps she just said she was hungry so we made mini sausage rolls etc and she just ignored them and they had to be binned.

yeolde it does to me too (seem obviously wrong) but so many believe it isn't? So I wondered 'why am I like this!'

barbaraofseville I think you have it. It is the shameless privilage. Lack of gratitude perhaps-taking things for granted, it just seems to be a frivulous, no consideration for others existence.

When others have thrown food away I have made, I have been fuming (inwardly mostly)!

Years ago I made a pot of salsa and someone who was round at my house decided to 'help' by washing up after dinner-and threw the lot thinking it was waste!

Another time, I was staying at a friend's for a week to do a training course, their house closer to my course than mine. As the hours were so intense I made a week's worth of food to freeze but left it to cool, and forgot.
When I woke up in the morning-yes, all chucked in the bin. :(

lynsey91 I think it is awful that there is so much food waste in this country. On the one hand you have people having to use food banks and children going hungry and on the other you have people throwing perfectly good food away and on a regular basis yes I agree. It feels like my being able to afford to chuck stuff is slapping those who go without in the face, somhow.

notMeNoNo that is food for thought. (See what I did there)

There's no shame in avoiding waste but sometimes there's a bit of a cost-benefit. I really and truly do not have time to go boiling up leftovers for stock. It doesn't necessarily avoid waste if you need to add a load of extra ingredients, effort or fuel you wouldn't have needed otherwise.

Gwenhwyfar I definitely agree with that-but I don't mean using our bodies as wastebins, I mean saving food rather than throwing it, using it at a later time, not stuffing ourselves just to avoid waste-that IS a waste IMO. Only me here and I am slim and fairly fit
As for the plantpots-they were the huge, barrel types (about £30 each at the cheapest) and yes I do need some. I am not a hoarder-not a minimalist but not a fan of stuff hanging about with no purpose either.

Iminaglasscase I'd have done the same. Even if the birds ended up with them-not wasted.

plussize I am similar in terms of carbon footprint!Never fly, no children etc.

I was irritated about the wedges. They're always better the next day

As for the cooking what one needs, when I have a couple of friends around, we've had wine, I'd rather make too much than not enough? The rest can always be frozen.
Same if I'm entertaining-too much so much better than leaving people hungry-but I won't throw the remaining stuff away. I don't make LOADS too much, but enough to be safe.

Judashascome Don't apologise! I loved reading that and you're exactly like me minus the upbringing and I think It is great that you were envied rather than ostracised!

If I could alwyas make the exact amount I need, that would be great and for just me, I generally do. The examples I've given mainly weren't a case of me making too much?

If something IS 'waste' though I don't even waste that (ie a stalk off the broccoli=stock, onion middles same, non-edible or rotten veg waste-compost heap)

laurie that's genuinely shocking :(

I buy secondhand more or less everything where possible. VERY rarely buy new clothes or household items.

deriguer would you mind telling me how you make stock in your slow cooker?

I guess we're at an advantage if we enjoy cooking. I have very little time too, but I make a point of cooking because it relaxes me.

novemberR I did have an element of that in my childhood. It can be very damaging I agree :(

I am glad I began this thread. It has made me make sense of why I am this way, and some very interesting viewpoints!

*deriguer would you mind telling me how you make stock in your slow cooker?

I guess we're at an advantage if we enjoy cooking. I have very little time too, but I make a point of cooking because it relaxes me*

I think you misread my post. I use a pressure cooker.

I'm not a fan of slow cookers but use my pressure cooker 4/5 times a week.

Re: meat stock I just throw in meat bones plus onion skins/trimmings and any veg peelings plus maybe a bay leaf and cover with water (just enough to cover the bones/veg).

Then bring to the boil and cook on pressure. I cook for an hour for meat stock and 30 mins for veg stock.

After that it depends on what I'm planning
to cook.

I might use the stock straight away eg risotto, but if not I tend to strain it then boil rapidly to reduce it massively.

Essentially I'm making my own stock cubes by reducing and the putting in an ice cube tray and freezing.

I'm not sure how you could get the same concentration of flavour from a slow cooker without cooking for days tbh and even then I'm not sure it would work as the heat won't get the flavour from the bones.

As a general point I see lots of love for slow cookers on MN but rarely pressure cookers (normal ones - you don't need the expensive instapots) and in my experience pressure cookers are far more versatile and time saving.

I did misread! Sorry, very tired but I also have a pressure cooker so thank you. :)

@Thisusernameistakenagain

I like watching documentaries about historical food and your post about slow cookers/stock reminded me...

So my assertion it's not great to use a slow cooker is false and I stand corrected.

Homemade stock cubes.....

Do you try to be environmentally friendly in other areas as well. I have tried to do this

I'm the same. I just think there are so many people out there with no food at all, we shouldn't be throwing things out.

When I lived at home, we used to save our food scraps for the pigs on the farm down the road as we lived in the country on a little housing estate. Everyone on the estate did the same, and the farmer was grateful as it meant he rarely had to buy slop for them, as we gave him plenty. So that was a good way to use the waste.

@Countdowntonothing

My parents put any leftovers, no matter how small (i.e. 1 stem of broccoli) into Tupperware to eat for random leftover dinners. I think it's just engrained in me not to waste.

Remembering leftovers from the past has partly turned me against them. Seeing the same food brought out again and again looking more and more disgusting...