to be shocked that 70% of food waste is from our homes? Do people not eat leftovers?

[MLMshouldbeillegal]

ahdb.org.uk/news/consumer-insight-positive-movements-in-uk-food-waste-reduction-reverse-as-covid-19-restrictions-are-removed

71% of food waste - 4.5 MILLION TONNES - annually is from our homes. Retailer and restaurants get stick in the press for throwing things away but really, they're not the problem, are they? Only 4% of food waste is produced by reailers.

It's us who are being wasteful. Throwing away 4.5 million tonnes of food each year is obscene. Do people not eat leftovers? Freeze what they're not using and keep it another day?

We waste absolutely no food in this house. I make a lot of soups and pies. I just don't waste food - it seems immoral.

I don't have little kids though!

@Gwenhwyfar

"generally things like tea bags"

Apparently some teabags have plastic in them so can't be composted properly.

You're quite a lot still do contain plastic, but thankfully more and more don't. I usually have Clipper plastic free bags.

That said, thank god for the feathery bin-mouths that are chickens. They love scraps.

Usually the only waste for us is vegetable peelings, fruit cores, the heels from loaves of bread, meat carcasses and the odd bit of lettuce sometimes although I tend to go for an iceberg lettuce as they stay crisp longest. Bags go off really quickly. We do eat past the use by date if it looks and smells ok, I use soft veg like carrots and parsnips past their best or spinach, leeks, potatoes etc in soups. When the grandchildren come I serve them small portions as I know they are faddy. I menu plan, freeze meat when our food delivery comes and use leftover meat in currys, sandwiches, risottos etc.

I usually have avocados /banana problem but I freeze them and add to smoothies!:)

@Aggy35

I'm not shocked but I am disgusted.With all the climate issues etc not only we shop without thinking we actually throw it out instead of eating it.Its even worse when its meat...a creature has died for you and you put it in a bin..

I still can't believe any sentient, educated woman in Western society actually eats meat. Perhaps they don't know how it is produced, or they don't care. It's terrible.

If you are ok with minimum spend 2 deliveries a week or one delivery and an Aldi shop etc is much easier for planning and food not going off. Otherwise if you buy in 7 days your food for end of week doesn’t last and it’s not easy to swap over as Monday tea might need to be something quick but Thursday more time to cook.
Confidence and experience cooking. Knowing what to substitute. I often adapt recipes whereas a lot of people are ok following a recipe but would buy x when they have y in fridge that would probably substitute just fine but they end up throwing away y.
Planning 3 days can be easier. Or 6/7 then if something happens eg stuck at work food isn’t wasted. Have tins or freezer as back up.
My co op reduces stuff to pennies at night so I often go in. I was a bit late one night and saw whole of reduced section swept into a plastic bag and binned. It upset me to see such waste.
Milkman is great, just leave note how many milk or eggs if I need extra. Washable bottles. Eggs and milk from local farm. My daughter drinks unsweetened almond milk in a none recyclable carton in preference though.

@Jijithecat
@EdgeOfTheSky

The main retailers have a big PR front to work with local charities, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to them having full shelves.
The more expensive the retailer, the worse they are about it.

"the tyranny of milk. It’s heavy"

What? Milk isn't heavy. No heavier than any liquid.

" love not making rice pudding and crème caramel, just because I don’t want to waste it."

How strange. You were obviously buying too much.

"what is depressing about putting a loaf in the freezer and taking out what you need when you need it?"

The bread curls and it's harder to fit it into the toaster. Plus just doesn't taste nice.

Was wondering when the vegans would appear.

It's mean calling people selfish and stupid for this.
I have autism and didn't actually know food waste impacted the environment.
I can't cope with shopping, cooking and planning due to executive functioning issues so there has been a lot of food waste in my house because things go off or acceptable to me foods change and I am stuck on only eating a few things.
My support workers are helping me so hopefully there will be less waste from now on.
Also, I don't get how individuals wasting food or not has any effect on starving people?

@MuchTooTired

I think the mindful shopping is key, if there are things you regularly throw away, then stop buying it.
I know we we will always get through tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots and mushrooms, apples and grapes. So thats the core of my fruit and veg shopping. Occasionally I’ll buy a few bananas, maybe once a month peppers, once a month a cauliflower and a few potatoes for baked spuds.
We have an allotment so have loads of soft fruits which I pick as needed - I know not everyone can do this, but it does concentrate the mind on what we do actually eat - because it takes effort to grow it, we grow what we will eat.
Shopping is the same principle really - I know realistically during the week we will have pizza, spag bol or chilli, fish and chips, something with chicken, something with sausages/burgers so I shop to that, weekends I have time to think about and do other stuff so I’ll get what we need.
I go to the local butcher every two weeks, they make their own burgers and sausages, get enough for a couple of meals. Go to the green grocers on Saturday morning, having checked whats still left in the fridge.
Very little waste

@TheKeatingFive

Not everyone has a lot of freezer space if you rent. That’s a problem our household runs into.

Sure, but it's about careful management. It's very rare to have no freezer space at all. It's about making sure you use what you have smartly.

I don't think it's that are. A lot of cheap fridges just have an ice box. I'm sitting in a kitchen now with 2 fridges (my own and the flat's). Only one is plugged in, but both only have a one star ice box.

How do you do multiple deliveries a week as a single person household and not get hammered for the min delivery charge? Genuine question - is there something I’m missing?

How do you all freeze so much? I genuinely haven’t room to do that

I still can't believe any sentient, educated woman in Western society actually eats meat. Perhaps they don't know how it is produced, or they don't care. It's terrible.

In fairness, meat eating has been part of human culture for millennia. Dumping large amounts of it out of laziness/ignorance is a pretty recent phenomena.

I know exactly how meat is produced. I grew up on a farm.

I buy high welfare meat from the butcher as often as I can

A lot of cheap fridges just have an ice box.

Doesn't mean it can't be used.

I spent many years in rented places with this set up. I still froze left overs/bread/etc.

If you’ve only a freezer box then it’s half full with a loaf in it.

@beigebrownblue

for anyone who wants to try out abel and cole

Enjoy 50% off your 1st and 4th boxes. Enter FIRSTBOX at checkout

If you are not in, they will put the box in a safe place.
Yes many things more expensive but you can always cancel after four weeks.

Sounds great, but unfortunately they don't deliver in my area. Neither do Waitrose, so no adding notes to the order.

I make more waste that I'd like, but unfortunately at the moment there's now much I can do about it. My work schedule is very unpredictable and I have caring responsibilities that can take me away from home at very short notice.

The supermarkets also don't help - I've just had to throw away an unopened block of cheese that is still in date but was covered in mould. The wrapper must have had a hole in it. (and there's no way I'd be able to cut the mould off and eat the cheese. I had bad food poisoning a few years ago from a party buffet and it's made me extremely wary.)

It's also a touch privileged to say that people should be keeping leftovers as it doesn't take into account that not everyone is cooking from scratch. I can't imagine trying to reheat stuff like oven chips and chicken nuggets and I think you'd be risking being ill, especially with chicken.

If you’ve only a freezer box then it’s half full with a loaf in it.

I wouldn't have bought a whole loaf to put it straight in the freezer. I'd be freezing slices.

"More than once I've poured in date milk into my tea and found it's very off."

Me too. Usually corner shop milk rather than from the supermarket. It's often about to go off even when I buy it and it hasn't reached its date.

Our food is too cheap. What we pay in no way reflects the cost to produce.

Taking a piece of bread, frozen when fresh, and sticking it in the toaster results in a piece of toast, nothing more, nothing less.

I guess many will not take the issue seriously until there isn't enough food to go round.

Also my local council don't provide food waste bins and the brown bins are for garden waste only, and are only collected between certain dates so not much use! I put some peelings in mine and got a telling off- they're worried about cross contamination apparently.

@beigebrownblue

for anyone who wants to try out abel and cole

Enjoy 50% off your 1st and 4th boxes. Enter FIRSTBOX at checkout

If you are not in, they will put the box in a safe place.
Yes many things more expensive but you can always cancel after four weeks.

I think that's a good route to even more waste. A box delivered at regular times and probably a random selection rather than someone going to the shop when they need food.