to ask, who wastes all the food?

[amigababy]

So Tesco is removing the best before dates on its own fruit and vegetables.
Wrap, the food waste body, say that in Britain families throw away £700 of food a year ( I've read that a few times over recent years). So for me that would equate to 10 full weeks of shopping every year, discarded. More, if I assume at least 10% of every weeks shop is non food items.

I reckon I throw away maybe a £ a week of food - half a bag of salad, a half tin of beans that sat in the fridge too long, the last slice of ham. So at worst say £60 a year. Who's throwing away all the rest to get to these averages? I want to understand.

I can imagine the restaurant industry wastes a lot.

IsMyUserNameRubbish

What Tesco is telling us to do is use our common sense and our eyes when making a purchase. We have all lost touch with the natural ability our mother's and grandmother's had - the ability to notice if something is not fresh. Smelling, squeezing, looking. The manky stuff will still be left on the shelf.

I have a dear friend who refuses to eat something for a second day. So the magic MN chicken would go in the bin after the first day . Left over chili that is even better re-heated the next day? Nope, it's already been thrown out...

I remember staying in a holiday cottage where a friend of our friends was going through the fridge throwing out yogurts a day past their sell by date. Now, it's obvious when a yogurt has gone off. I remember having kids to tea when mine were younger and taking off the tops of out of date yogurts before giving them to them to eat so they didn't see the date.

Apologies one of those kids belonged to you and you're not happy!

My DM
She grew up hungry and neglected so now she fills the fridge, picks what she wants each day and bins the rest. I despair but I can't change her.

So beef ( except minced) - isn't half of it aged anyway, hung for 28 days etc .
Chicken/ pork/ fish I'm careful, but gammon, ham cured meats, cheese , not too worried.
Yoghurt - it's essentially off anyway, so unless anything is growing, it's ok.
Milk - I use soya milk, seems to last for ages.

If you shop at a market instead of a supermarket you've got to use your own judgement anyway with fruit and veg.

I throw out very little now, but when I used to get Ocado deliveries the veg would turn up in such pisspoor shape it wouldn't last the week. Now I get veg boxes that seem much more robust.

My answer to food waste is meal planning, lots of tupperware, and a willingness to eat random leftovers in odd combinations.

the best way to avoid waste is to shop like our parents did - daily. Look in the fridge/cupboards, then go out and buy whatever you need to use up what's left.

I more or less do this - I live in a hot country with poor food standards, so food goes off very quickly. It does take a lot of time to shop like this, particularly as availability can be iffy too so I have to think on my feet a lot in the shops and work with what I have at home and what I can actually get

We have all lost touch with the natural ability our mother's and grandmother's had - the ability to notice if something is not fresh

When I said on a thread about supermarket shopping that I thought online deliveries meant that DC were missing out on developing this skill, I was told that this was nonsense and it just takes some common sense and one or two trips to the supermarket to practice. I still maintain that it's a bit more complicated than that - some stuff needs to be hard when bought to avoid going off before it can be used; some stuff has to be soft when you buy it or it will never ripen. (Though no-one really knows how to tell a good avocado from a manky one ). We are definitely losing this skill

We used to throw away around £30-£40 a week. DH was often deployed or put on exercise at short notice, and as a result of constantly changing plans, the majority of fresh stuff would be chucked. Like I'd plan a shepherds pie, he'd be sent somewhere that morning. With a full freezer, it ended up in the bin. It infuriated me, it was a huge waste and the RAF wasn't exactly going to reimburse me for my food bill.

I've switched to frozen pretty much everything now. Means we have almost zero waste. All meals are freezer or store cupboard based.

IsMyUserNameRubbish - do you never buy the loose produce (like apples etc)?

I don't throw out much. Have been known to eat ham a month after it's use by date (I'm still alive). We rarely get our milk-buying correct so often throw out the last few mls but not that much. And if the veg gets to the point the rabbits won't touch it it goes into the compost, but, again, that's rare. I think I threw out two half parsnips last week that I'd forgotten about, and 3 carrots, but they were all mouldy and past it. But that's it. And I did feel guilty about the waste.

Grrrr....my otherwise lovely Parents, they still shop as if there are 6 of us still at home not 2 of them.

I looked in the fridge today and they have all sorts languishing, they buy in bulk to be cost effective but half of it gets chucked.

They keep buying bread, today I clocked a pack of 4 demi baguettes, 2x 6 packs of baps, a loaf each of thick sliced white & brown and a loaf of medium brown.

My DM laughed at me & took the piss the other day as she popped round and I was making a list of what we had in the freezer to use up, when they have a Jurassic layer that never gets excavated. And don't get me started on the fact that they will have 2 or 3 jars of the same thing open at a time- drives me barmy.......and breath!!

the best way to avoid waste is to shop like our parents did - daily. Look in the fridge/cupboards, then go out and buy whatever you need to use up what's left.

Erm, my mum worked full time (and was also a part-time student for a lot of my childhood). Shopping like she did means a lot more ready meals than I buy, a big weekly shop and a considerable reliance on baked beans on toast! And her mum also worked - surely you have to be quite old (or very middle class) to have grown up in a world where all mums or even grandmas were home all day to go constantly popping off to the greengrocer?

Today we are finishing the last of a bag of carrots that I bought weeks ago - the label on the bag says 'Display until 1 May'. They have been living in the salad drawer in the fridge and are absolutely fine. The cabbage we're having is about ten days old as well.

My DM worked nights ( nurse) and would shop on the high street after her day's sleep, greengrocer, butcher etc. Or I'd be given the money and a list and sent to buy whatever ( crossing 3 minor roads and 2 bigger ones via zebras). From being aged about 7. We seemed to start supermarket shopping in the late 70s when DM got her own car.

Me before I gave myself a talking to and got a fucking grip

I would buy food to cook from scratch and then end up too tired and get something delivered instead - I'd think I'll cook tomorrow but tomorrow never came and if it ever did stuff would be out of date

Anyway as I say, I got a grip. I now meal plan and make myself find the energy to cook.

So Tesco is removing the best before dates on its own fruit and vegetables.

Hate this idea. For home deliveries I want fruit and veg which is guaranteed best before for at least x days after I bring it home, after that I can make my own decision when to bin. if there are no dates they'll be able to send any old crap.

What are they going to do instore, have the staff sniff, taste and squeeze the entire box of veg to make sure it's all OK to display. If they don't implement a compensating control to ensure freshness this might make me move to another supermarket.

we throw out bread and old salad and that's about it.
My parents will happily have old bread in the bread bin and moulding meat in the fridge, buy more, eat the mouldy crap and then the new they bought is also past it's best.
I throw loads of food out from their fridge. They buy too much and eat it past its best, drives me insane that they live this way, totally not necessary.

we throw food out - sorry. I hope its not £700 worth though - but I guess lots of little things add up without realising maybe?

for instance I will accidently cook a little too much rice and theres not enough to save so it goes in the bin, or the end crust of a piece of bread which have gone a bit dry (I don't turn them into bread and butter pudding) or the kids don't eat as much as I thought they might so a few bits of chicken or half a fishfinger go in the bin. Then stuff does go mouldy particularly veg and I do look at use by dates and don't like to eat food much after the use by date if at all (not fussed about best before) I try and get it in the freezer but sometimes realise is a week out and bin it.

I have friends who generate a whole big food waste bin worth of rubbish every week. Mum, dad and a two year old. They just don't use the food they buy. Things like bread is particularly bad - they'll buy a loaf of white for the 2yo to have as sandwiches/toast, but only use a couple of slices and the rest goes off. They have a wholemeal loaf for them as well but again only use a couple of slices. Their freezer is too full so they can't freeze it. On top of that they've usually got a couple of packs of crumpets/croissants again they only use a few of, and they might buy a "posh loaf" of sourdough from a bakery mid-week intended for a meal and never get around to using it.

They'll buy a packet of sliced chicken in the online shop, forget it's there and buy another pack from the little Tesco down the road, then only use a couple of slices of that and the rest goes off. At any one time there's probably three packs of blueberries in their fridge, two of which might be open. Leftovers are put in a tupperware box, sit in the fridge for three days then are thrown out. Again - lack of freezer space and they don't think "well, we have this food already, yes it's second time this week but we should eat it", they cook something different. The freezer issue would be helped if they actually ate some of the leftovers and things clogging it up, it's doing no good just sat in there!

It's all very haphazard. They both work and are run ragged with the 2yo and keeping on top of food waste isn't top of their priorities, but it drives me crackers when I visit and go through their fridge to find a carrier bag full of waste.

I had to bin a whole chicken - it really pained me. (It was delivered from Ocado a few days beforehand and noticed a hole in the plastic packing which could have been there for yonks). Was not impressed as was about to cook a roast. Now I either don't order meat from Ocado or make sure I check the packaging's intact when I receive it.

This baffles me. I throw very little away. Manky bananas are frozen for smoothies or banana cake, ditto strawberries etc. Yoghurt / eggs don’t need chucking on use by date - especially if eggs are refrigerated. Meat is frozen and even chicken a couple of day out of date is usually fine - I have a nose. I also freeze things like half used tins of tomatoes, leftover sauces and meals. Vegetables can also be frozen. We did have a failure a couple of days ago and had to chuck a 500g pack of minced beef. I was horrified. That animal died for us and we threw it in the bin. We have a lot of freezer space and I understand not everyone does. All in all we waste very little, the odd 1/3 cucumber. We use more electricity for a the privilege.

My bloody parents chuck stuff away like billy ho!

I'm the total opposite and refuse to let dates dictate to me what's acceptable to eat. If it still smells and looks ok it gets eaten. And I have at least one day a week concocting dishes with stuff that needs using up.

Ready bagged salad is a nightmare though and I'm still trying to find the perfect bag that's not rancid after two days.

I once went to my sister in laws to feed their cat, they were away for a week. Their whole fridge was literally full of food, meat, salad that would be off by the time they got home. I text and said should I freeze it, and she said just bin it. So..... people like that. And I bet there’s loads of people who do it.

I reckon we bin about £1-£2 of food a week from the fridge, but a bit more from plates. Even that pains me!

We hardly throw anything in our caddy, it tends to be peelings, chicken bones, the last couple of slices of bread and banana skins.

We meal plan and freeze any left overs.

Love a 'mix up' night when we all have a meal out of the freezer and no one knows what they're eating!!

I got up early one day last week and called at my local Co-op convenience store as they opened up at 6am.
The piles of baked stuff, bread cakes etc that was being thrown away was utterly appalling.
But I don't know what to do about it.