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?

Yes, kids can eat the food off their on plates for a later meal?

@Aqua55

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

The money isn't the point.

It's the callous attitude to waste when people are going hungry, even in this country.

I've just been kicking myself today because I found some home made soup at the back of the fridge and when I heated and tasted it it was inedible. I can afford to throw it out - but it is such a waste, it annoys me.

Theres another thread where the OP threw away her lovely meal because her husband took a bite of it.
All the other pp say LTB!!
Thatll contribute to food waste too.

Its mad on here this morning.

This thread has yet confirmed why online food shopping is shit. Who wants food with a couple of days until the use by date? We generally tend to ignore these and go with the sniff test but when I buy in the supermarket, I'd still always go for the product with the longest date on.

but why dont you freeze the meat until you do fancy it?

I used to. When I was a student it worked well. I was home so could have a think at mid-morning/lunch about what I want and start defrosting.

But when working and not back until late; it will never come back out again. In all honesty its delaying the binning from immediately to 6 months time.

And yes I could defrost the night before; but that again presents the same problem of not knowing the next night whether even the thought of something makes me want to projectile vomit.

If it is a pie or something I can cook from frozen then I do freeze. But a pack of meat, I just don't freeze them anymore.

Our household food waste consists of things like coffee grounds, bones, peelings, cores/inedible skins. Theres a small amount of edible food thrown away but I don't think much is avoidable.

There are some really good explanations about food labelling and what people should be taking notice of on this link
toogoodtogo.co.uk/en-gb/campaign/commitment

I'm personally not too concerned about eating food off my children's plates.

I agree with whoever said composting is great for fruit/veg waste. We've halved our food waste as a result.

I don't know how they can know this 100%, but I call bullshit. We hardly throw ANY food away.

@Wherearemyminions I know this is your sister and not you but that post made me so angry 😠

Our household food waste consists of things like coffee grounds, bones, peelings, cores/inedible skins.

Composting would work for most of that

I've been providing meals for an elderly person recently and I'm struck by how difficult it is for him to buy small portions without only eating ready meals. Even a pack of mushrooms is so much for him and has to be eaten so quickly.Potatoes turn green before he eats them, it's all really difficult. He's now eating my leftovers and I struggle to see how he could buy sensible quantities to cook for himself.Sensible use of freezers needs to be encouraged and it's the only way I see him being able to reduce his food waste.
I was in a very large m&s last night and the strange bread which sits open to the public all day was being bagged up and disposed of. Why did they not reduce it or realise that if you're 30 loaves over you make less the following day.

We are pretty good with food waste here, like others kids make it more difficult- some leftovers can't be 'saved' eg a half eaten/ chewed peanut butter sandwich or slice of toast!
We give all compostable waste to my mum, who has a hot box composter in her garden, it's about the size of a wheelie bin. She's very proud of it and lovingly takes care of it, working out the optimum ratio of veg to shredded cardboard. She will show it off at every opportunity and encourage you to check the temperature
It gets up to almost 60degrees! If there was proper joined up thinking through councils we could harness that energy I am sure.
We don't have food waste collections where we live.

Waitrose - there is a little "note for shopper" box against every item.

Fabulous!

Thanks @BigWoollyJumpers

We hardly throw ANY food away.

Well you might not, but a quick look at thread would open your eyes.

And that's just what people admit to

I wish they’d do spinach in smaller bags. I have it with my salad everyday and the family a few times a week and we always have some left over.

That and the odd slice of bread is the most we throw away.

She's very proud of it and lovingly takes care of it, working out the optimum ratio of veg to shredded cardboard. She will show it off at every opportunity and encourage you to check the temperature

My DH does this too

I don't like the fact that I throw a fair bit of food away on a regular basis. I live alone and when I do the weekly shop I have absolutely no idea how many meals I will eat at home/take from home that week, due to a very inconsistent and unreliable work schedule.

Some weeks I end up going for a top up shop, other weeks I've bought just the essentials and end up eating out 2-3 days in a row, all three meals. So I end up with out-of-date hummus and (opened) yoghurt, moldy cheese, rotting veg that I haven't been able to finish.

I buy the bare minimum each week and try to have cupboard / frozen food as the main ingredients, but I still end up throwing away food. It's not great but I literally don't have the time to turn everything into soup once it starts going off, or the psychic ability to know in advance for how many meals I need to shop each week.

The chickens eat a lot of our food waste.
Our food waste bin is mostly banana peel, orange peel, egg shell, coffee grounds and bread (chickens get crusts but I don't think they should have too much).
People who throw edible food away are crazy, and wasteful.

I'm horrified at some of the responses on here. I'm not perfect and have on occasion put some very yellow and nasty smelling broccoli on the compost heap, or thrown a mouldy potato away, but generally I use everything up.

We keep bread in the freezer after the first day and defrost slices as and when we want some. If I have potatoes looking like they are going past it I par boil and freeze them - brilliant for making roasties. If I have anything else getting near its use by date I wil make something with it and freeze it.

@Theyellowflamingo

My problem is not “leftovers” - if I have leftovers it’s deliberate because I want them for something (like I want leftover roast chicken for a risotto or something), otherwise we just cook what we will eat.

My food waste comes predominantly from children whose appetite is unpredictable and who are very fussy about food (crusts off sandwiches for example). It’s not helped by the difficulty/expense in buying small amounts of fresh produce as opposed to a big bag of pears or carrots or whatever.

Plastic bags help food rot, I remove any plastic bags, coverings, I also buy from market traders for small quantities. I used some carrots from the botton of the salad bin recently, still in their bag unusually, they were best before mid August, perfectly OK too!

@HesterShaw1

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.

When I was in Tanzania I met a man who ran his stove and lighting on methane from 3 cows farting in the shed attached to this house. Wonderful!

Its in capitalism interests to sell you something that only lasts 2 days, for full price. And then you have to buy it again . And again, several times a week.
It also suits them dandy to put the blame on the consumer (like making phones out of glass).
Capitalism directly benefits from weekly shopping being unsuitable and getting pp into supermarkets daily. Pp spend far more this way and all that waste is actually in their favour as if its bought and thrown away pp have to buy it again. If you were throwing away your sofa regularly youd need to buy more sofas.
Dates are shorter now for this reason. We're all being had.

The turning noses up at 'leftovers' is really shocking. I also struggle to understand it. Nothing I like more food wise than leftover chicken from a roast. The possibilities are endless.

Confusion between best before and eat before dates.
Over shopping.
People not being confident in what to do with leftovers.