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?

My house is like that of @Theyellowfamingo. My kids are fussy, unpredictable and flatly refuse to eat leftovers, even if I disguise them. They can taste when something has been cooked and then gone in the freezer! I eat leftovers , but it's bad for my self esteem/waistline to live on leftovers and plate scrapings all the time...

The problem is that supermarkets often don't let you buy a small amount of something and then it just doesn't all get used. Also often things just don't last long.
I'd never waste left overs though, we'd have them the next day or freeze them. Things often taste better the next day.

I agree people should be mindful of waste, but it isn't always that easy.

Take celery - if I want to make a bolognese, I need about 3 sticks of celery. But I can only buy it as a whole root of about 12 sticks. I try to meal plan for things that will use the rest but it's not always feasible to do that for all ingredients, so I have leftover veg. I freeze it and make stock, but I only have a small freezer and I often end up making more stock than I use.

Same with salad - why does it only come in family sized bags? Why can't I get a half size bag?

We all need to make a conscious effort to reduce food waste but supermarkets have to do their part by actually providing food in small enough quantities to help people avoid waste without huge amounts of extra effort involved in batch cooking, freezing etc.

We've actually recently switched to Hello Fresh for 4 meals a week and it has massively reduced our food waste, but it's expensive and therefore not a solution for everyone (plus it has its own issues - excess packaging, travel miles for delivery etc).

I know our household doesn’t waste much food at all. Practically everything bought is eaten. I hate waste.

I stopped buying Aldi fruit and veg because often it went off before I could get it to the till.

It’s incredibly unusual for food to get wasted in this house. Both brought up by parents who lived through rationing in WWII so was seen as pretty sinful.

I often make Sunday soup so all veg that needs using gets chucked in, a bit like a medieval potage.

@Aqua55

I don't bother with leftovers. It's my money to waste if I want.

It's not about the money. It's SO not about the money.

These attitudes really shock me.

I only have a small fridge freezer because I only have a small kitchen. I'm my DD'S childcare, she picks up extra shifts when she can and I forget to carry food to hers, so sometimes eggs and mushrooms get binned. Over summer it is lettuce etc. Tesco used to do £1 packs of lettuce but that carries a big environmental cost. I live on a budget and have to shop in cheaper shops, I'm also disabled which makes carrying shopping difficult. So that means that I will have waste or have to stop eating fresh fruit/veg.
I know people who are multiple adult households, such as my ex, who just fill the fridge and bin what's not ate. My ex was always complaining that I didn't have snacks/random stuff for sandwiches in, but I do consider food waste when shopping.

@cushioncovers

I try not to, my problem I have is I do an online grocery shop intending for it to last the week. I then get delivered fresh food that frequently only has 2 days date on it when I know from being in the store that produce at the back of the shelf has 4 or 5 days date on it. I'm then left with a load of fresh food that either needs using up in 48 hours or throwing away. I've complained so many times and got refunded every time but still nothing changes so I end up throwing out salad, coleslaw etc every week. Financially it's not costing me anything but environmentally it is.

So you know that fresh food delivered will only last a couple of days but insist on ordering more than you can consume in that time period and throwing the rest away?

This sort of willful stupidity explains so much about why we have no hope of averting the climate crisis.

My sister does this and it really shocked me the first time I saw it, she opens the fridge just before her grocery delivery is due , with a black bag in hand and literally just throws chicken breasts, fruit , veg, cheese, everything into it. Doesn't look at dates or consider moving to her large freezer, just chucks the lot.
We're not perfect but we do try our best to use up, and where possible things go on the compost rather than in landfill

I throw away food sometimes. Due to my nature of my disability, being able to cook what I’ve bought can be difficult so it wastes. Do I feel good about it? No. Does feeling bad change it? Also no.

@Aqua55

I don't bother with leftovers. It's my money to waste if I want.

It's not just your money, it's all our environment.

Food is still too cheap for some...

There was a thread recently where a poster said eating leftovers was 'gross' along with the attendant 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢 faces.

Ludicrous.

The pattern of buying big weekly shops and getting online delivers aren't particularly helpful either. Buying smaller amounts, more frequently, in person would help people manage waste better.

I agree OP it is shocking. We have very little food waste. Although as each DC leaves home, it does go up a bit until we are used to cooking right amount for new family size. We always eat leftovers. Most food waste comes from our grocery deliveries already having rotten fruit or veg in them so when we go to use it...we discover it’s rotten.

There was a thread recently where a poster said eating leftovers was 'gross' along with the attendant 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢 faces.

Plenty of thick and ignorant types around unfortunately

71% of food waste -... - annually is from our homes.

So shops (especially supermarkets who run just-in-time stock control) and restaurants (especially chains and fast food outlets who buy in a lot of prepared food) have become very efficient at buying exactly what they will sell at any time and no more.

Do people not eat leftovers?

Are you sure that "food waste" only means leftovers and unused food, and not peelings and bones and used teabags?

Our "food waste" which goes out for the bin men each week actually doesn't have that much real waste in it. It's apple cores, banana skins, vegetable peelings, bits of fat cut off meat before cooking. Few plate scrapings. But not whole bags of stuff or half a chicken because we just fancied eating the breast meat and threw the rest out.

It's food that ends up in landfill which produces the methane.

I throw hardly any food away, but the LA (Cornwall) really needs to get its act together and start offering food waste collection. Can't it be made into gas to provide to households?

Obviously people need to buy less and waste less as well.

I see having left overs as a challenge to my cooking skills

[quote Coffeepants]@Aqua55 that seems like a selfish attitude. Do the millions going to bed hungry cross your mind at all?

Always use up leftovers, on rare occasions may throw out bread if not frozen and turning mouldy or brown lettuce but try to avoid this as much as I can by planning meals and using leftovers for lunch, etc[/quote]
I take it that all your leftovers are donated to the starving. How kind of you.

I've always had a compost heap. If people realised how easy it is and how they don't attract rats, more people would I'm sure.

@Aqua55

I don't bother with leftovers. It's my money to waste if I want.

It’s not about your money, it’s about all the production, water, fuel, everything that it’s taken to get that food on your plate in the first place.

It’s an environmental issue as much as an economic one.

I don't bother with leftovers. It's my money to waste if I want.

It's about having basic respect for food, the people who grow it, the impact on the planet and the people who don't have enough.

Unfortunately these attitudes aren't as widespread as they should be.

@AmaryllisNightAndDay

71% of food waste -... - annually is from our homes.

So shops (especially supermarkets who run just-in-time stock control) and restaurants (especially chains and fast food outlets who buy in a lot of prepared food) have become very efficient at buying exactly what they will sell at any time and no more.

Do people not eat leftovers?

Are you sure that "food waste" only means leftovers and unused food, and not peelings and bones and used teabags?

If you read the paper it specifically excludes inedible waste.

I pointed out to my teen DD recently who went on and on about climate change and global warming that she should check the fridge frequently and then use up products that are close to their chucking away date...first

Doesn't make a blind bit of difference.

It is always me who checks the fridge and ends up eating things up...

I despair sometimes honestly.