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.

£15?!!! I thought I was good with £30/£35 pw for 3 of us! (including cleaning stuff and loo rolls etc)

Yes - who needs a BB date on fruit? Look at it people!

And yes, I also eat out of date stuff, cut mold from cheese and use things that others just throw out. My friend passes her OOD potatoes on to me...nowt wrong with them.

No waste here. Any peelings or uneaten food is composted where it might acidently be eaten by my hens when they roam the garden.A ccidently like

Anything we don't eat goes into the compost so not wasted.

Hold hands up

Lots of waste here, Ive got veg going in the bin today, Left over take away going in the bin and we chucked a whole block of cheese yesterday.

As well as everything DS does not finish, bread that sits out for so long.

I would love to not waste so much however 1 week we may throw nothing but the next we can buy the same amount of food and throw half of it away.

Of course Kal. Of course

I could lend you a few gannets Chatty.

'So for example, a brown banana can be frozen (without skin)' Mine seem to freeze fine with the skin, I juts chuck them straight in the freezer, and then peel and defrost for cake.

Why chuck a whole block of cheese chatty? Couldn't you have cut the mould off? The inside would have been fine.

Am intriguied by the chickens thing

Rarely throw out more than the ends of carrots and the odd slice of bread or roll that went hard due to OH not re-wrapping the pack properly. And sometimes a bit of ham for the same reason.

It is illegal to feed your chickens anything that has been through a kitchen (except one set up only for animal feed)

So noone everyone ever always does

For me its creme fraiche/curry paste/Greek yoghurt- i use the 3 tblsp in the recipe and the rest gets chucked. Im not happy about that.

Mainly we use things up & don't waste much.

The most I throw out is when I defrost the fridge-freezer. Last time it was half a bag of frozen veg, a few english muffins and a couple of ice lollies.

chickens and foodwaste

all of my food waste goes into the compost bin (apart from meat, which the cats eat)

pregnantpause, some of Pataks curry pastes have a 6 month life once opened. They aren't a general paste though, it's balti or rogan josh etc.

Even the pastes, use your sniff and eyes. If its not furry its fine

defra's leaflet

If you buy vegetables specifically to feed your chickens, it's fine, but they mustn't go into your kitchen or they're counted as kitchen waste.

even if your chickens/eggs are only for your own use? what a crock!

I'm another that ignores BB and UB dates, any fruit and veg including most peelings (not potato) get given to the rabbits and horses and left over meat goes to either the dog or the ferret that has taken up residence at the stables.

We have very little food waste in our house

I do waste quite a bit, it's because of all the warnings on food...once opened eat within 24 hours. Meat says use within one month so if I freeze and don't use within one month I worry and chuck it out.

yes, sorry omgbfp
It's to do with trying to reduce the spread of disease (in case it gets near meat)

buy the veggies for your chickens and cut off the best bits they might not eat and keep them in the fridge

but they're not allowed to go into the kitchen at all.
you'd either have to have a fridge for your chooks' food, or give it to them straight away.

Thank-you for this thread. I actually made the effort to cook up a load of bendy carrots with a squash and half an onion. Roasted it and made it into soup. I felt very virtuous.

Kaekae, I'm sure most of us will tell you that we defrost, cook and eat meat that has been in the freezer for years. Don't worry about it!