to ask you to think about the food that you waste.

[Fiendishlie]

I hope I am not being unreasonable posting it here, but MN have a link to the Love Food, Hate Waste site as one of this weeks campaigns and I believe we all have a duty to think about the issue and see if we can help reduce the amount of food that is wasted in this country, as well as saving ourselves some money into the bargain.

I work in Waste Management and I am constantly amazed by some peoples' attitues to the waste they produce and their right to continue to do so.
Love food, hate waste calculate that as a nation we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food per year, most of which could have been eaten. If we stopped throwing away this food it would save the equivalent carbon as taking 1 in 5 cars off the road. Plus, we have paid for this food, only to discard it, uneaten.

I of course never feed my chickens or other animals kitchen waste 'cos that would be illegal

I hate wasting food, but sometimes it really doesn't last.

Well that's good to know bronze.

I agree with you. I also don't think supermarkets help - to often things are on "special offer" or it works out cheaper to get the bigger product which tempts people to buy more than they need increasing the waste.

On fresh products it seems the wrong way to do it - one apple should cost the same per unit as 10 apples would per unit.

I never put bendy celery and carrots in my delicious Jamie Oliver beef stew

Oh no not me

[whistles]

Very little barring fat off meat tbh. We certainly don't have 'leftovers' chez cheese.

YANBU and I say this as somebody who more often then she likes, has found out of date yoghurt etc in her fridge - unopened and unused.

DH and I are getting better. Planning our weekly meals has helped because it means we're only buying in what we need and will use.

I think I don't 'waste' any food but I suppose it depends on what you call 'food'. I peel potatoes and peel carrots and cut out thick cabbage stalks. Are the peel and stalks 'food'? They go into a Council-provided biodegradable bag and are collected every week. I use food that's past its sell by date because there's nothing wrong with anything a couple of days past a date. Dry food like sugar, flour, salt, tea, sultanas have been preserved by being dried and will last for years. Tinned food lasts for years, too. Look at the tinned food found at the North (or was it South?) Pole 50 years after it had been left there and was found still to be edible.

If I have vegetables left over after, say, a dinner party and there's too much for me to use, I make soup and freeze it in suitably sized containers. My food bill every week is seldom more than £15 only when I buy wine. I make my own cakes (if necessary).

I never have left over wine.
I am practically a saint...

I don't waste food. Anything left over after meals is kept in the fridge for another meal.

Bronze

But you don't have to tell anyone if you do, do you?

I'm the same with cake labootin

we cant' afford to waste any food, so unless it stinks to high heaven or it's covered in mould we eat it, regardless of the expiry date!

Rule - well you certainly don't admit it on a public forum deny deny deny

Agree with RuleBritannia - there's usually nothing at all wrong with food past its sell by date, partly because of all the chemicals that are added to our food nowadays! Follow the sniff rule...scrape off any little bits of mould on jam or cheese (blue cheese is mouldy anyway)...add soft veggies to soups and stews... no YANBU I can't bear seeing people going into their fridge and chucking out barely touched containers of food.

I am guilty of this. It just happens somehow

Solo, I know what you mean about it not lasting - but a large part of the campaign is about planning the shopping that you buy so that it is used up before it goes off, and also about freezing food before it is wasted.

So for example, a brown banana can be frozen (without skin) and used later in a smoothie or banoffee pie. Or only buying one packet of yoghurts in the supermarket, rather than being tempted by a bogof offer and then throwing some out.

rulebritannia Im in awe at your £15 a week food bill. Fair enough I assume thats just for yourself....but how??

Most of the food waste from our house is off DS1s plate.
Happy to use curly carrots etc in curries and casseroles when DH isn't looking and I see use by dates as a guide rather than an absolute rule.

It is hard. Even when you are someone who does tend to watch it, plan to use leftovers, tries to only buy enough etc. There will be weeks when you are tempted by the offer as you normally use those anyway, the week goes to pot and you end up eating lovingly made from scratch and previously frozen dinners pre-prepared c**p from freezer or getting takeaways, or expected numbers don't show for meals, or one element of the dish goes off so the other bits cannot be used the same way......

We compost a LOT of stuff that we wouldn't eat, I tend to try and use leftovers (sometimes inventively ), freeze elements (e.g. old bread into breadcrumbs or even complete stuffing) or even whole dishes, avoid over buying etc. But even then there are weeks when I end up throwing out a supermarket carrier of leftovers that cannot be eaten.

Does giving manky chicken to the dogs count as waste? My fridge packed up this week and a few things went off before I realised.

There was no cake wasted, that never happens here

Ah well, I'm obviously the only person who admits to wasting far too much food. I hate it and still do it anyway. I need to plan better and probably get my kids to let me know when they are going to be out.

We have made it a rule recently that we dont buy any bOGOF offers or any 'just in case' food. We very rarely throw anything out anyway (though I did throw some sainsburys cream cheese out today, must remind dh that its a false economy as it goes mouldy so quickly)
Anyway since our new rule we seem to have slashed our grocery bills even though I'm not quite sure why.

I think Best Before dates have a lot to answer for too. Especially on things like fruit and veg where it's really not going to kill you if you use them a few days past the date printed on the bag.