How much food do you waste,if none how do you manage that?

[SundayFunday555]

Intrigued as to what is deemed as a good amount and how people get to zero.

I do have a wire fruit basket actually, rarely any fruit in there as I dont really eat fruit. I have lemons and limes and oranges for cooking, and the cleaner throws them away regularly if she spots they've been there for a few weeks, nothing worng with them at all. Shes another one!

I will try out the cucumbers and report back in a few weeks, Im not convinced they'll survive out of the fridge but we'll see. Our kitchen is very cold.

@likelysuspect , You'll be surprised. Peppers and courgettes go slimy in the fridge quickly. Toms taste better not refrigerated.

Peppers I find last ages in the fridge but you're right about courgettes

Tomatoes I find go mouldy in their stalky bits if they're not in the fridge but like you, I do not like fridged toms, a crime.

Our kitchen caddy food waste bin is always full before weekly bin day, but only with fruit and veg peelings, eggshells, etc., and if I’ve boiled up a chicken carcass for stock, there‘ll be even more.

There wasn't "somewhere else". It was the upstairs of a tiny Georgian house. No hallway even. People tend to just accept what's there for a 1 year rental contract. It's not that uncommon here in Georgian buildings to have very small appliances.

Yes I was giving my view, sometimes its not possible but if it is, then personally I would try to prioritise.

Like another poster, we havent got a tumbledrier but have a fridge freezer out the back and an undercounter fridge and undercounter freezer in the kitchen. Both full to the brim.

My dinners are often based around what needs eating first; I decide what to cook around whatever is approaching the end of its life. If there are leftovers, they are eaten for lunch within a day or two. The only stuff in our food waste bin is used teabags, cofffee grouts and fruit and veg peel.

Yeah I once spent 2 years living in a flat (in Paris) where we didn’t have space for a freezer or a washing machine or tumble dryer. The kitchen was 1m by 1m, and other than I just had a tiny bathroom and a bedroom/living room/everything else! We had a tiny freezer section at the top of the fridge.

We meal plan so are pretty good, but always end up with bread out for the birds. I only ever eat it at the weekend - bacon sandwich! - and it tends to get stale before DP finishes a loaf. (I know we could freeze it but we don’t usually have space.) I make a lot of soups with suspect veg, and we freeze leftovers or take them for lunches to work.

We definitely fill the green caddy with teabags though.

It depends what you mean by food waste OP.

Technically banana skins can be made into chutney, so is it a waste to throw them away?

If so, then yes I do waste food. But as little as possible.

Bread crusts get saved and left to dry out for days and even weeks in a bowl on top of the bread bin. When the bowl is full I whizz them onto breadcrumbs and freeze them to be used for meatballs, breaded chicken, fish cakes etc.

Cauliflower and broccoli leaves and stems are used to make soups.

I make pesto from wilting salad leaves.

I peel and freeze black bananas and any other squidgy fruits for smoothies or jam.

I try not to peel veggies but if I do peel them (eg my kids prefer mash with no bits of peel in it - fine) I sometimes turn the peels into crisps by popping them in the oven with some oil, salt and pepper.

If something is about to go off, I cook it and freeze it if I can’t eat it that day. I’m pretty free and easy with best before and use by dates. If it smells fine it probably is fine.

Our fridge is always full of tupperwares of leftovers. Somehow we always get through them all.

I am pretty organised with meal planning. I love cooking and I love the creative challenge of finding ways to use up leftovers. And after I’ve spent so long making something (and it’s delicious) that’s inventive not to throw it away.

Oh I do. My DD is not fussy but her appetite varies hugely. One day she will eat a huge bowl of pasta, next practically nothing in comparison. I co-parent so she can have 5 days away from me so I often can’t keep her leftovers.

Tonight she ate half her usual pizza quantity as she’s been ill. But we’re not eating at home again until Monday so it will be thrown. It is what it is. Next month she’ll eat all the pizza- I can’t predict it.

Sometimes she will eat 3 portions of fruit in a sitting, another less than half. I live a 40 min round trip from shops so have to buy plenty in but i rarely have “just enough”, it’s always too much or not enough.

It was far easier when cooking for 2 adults and a child somehow.

Oh I do too. But I just pop the kids’ leftovers into the Tupperware with the other leftovers and eat it another day.

I guess this might be unusual because when we go to friends’ houses I always find it a bit shocking watching them scrape their kids’ plates into the bin.

The only leftover I really can’t salvage is soggy breakfast cereal. YUCK. For that reason (and contrary to the username!) I discourage the kids from having breakfast cereal and we usually have overnight soaked oats instead which can be scraped back into the bowl for another day!

Almost zero. Once a year I will lose a yogurt at the back of the fridge but that's about it. I avoid waste by making fridge gravel soup, stock from bones, breadcrumbs from the end of the loaf, freezing anything I can't use up quickly, buying fresh things in fairly small quantities, rotating goods to use oldest first. I scrub most vegetables rather than peeling, and use eg the outer leaves of cabbage/cauliflower and the stalks of broccoli, so very little vegetable waste. Any peelings, along with eggshells and loose tealeaves go on our compost heap which I don't consider waste as it benefits the garden.

In our food waste caddy you will find the occasional bone; plus the occasional mouldy fruit if something got squashed in the bag and didn't last as long as expected. That's about all.

Just two adults at home and I'm retired and have time to actively manage food waste, which all helps.

Not a lot but then I have goats and chickens who eat practically anything. I think if I sat still long enough…..

I am way less organised than all these posters. I do a once a week online shop and there always seems to be a random ingredient that I forget I ordered that goes off in the fridge before I realise. Or more than one that has a shockingly short use by date. I try to use things up creatively, but before the new delivery I always end up adding some veg waste to the green bin.

Very little. Sad salad leaves I regularly whizz up into a pesto and freeze in cubes. Potatoes I might parboil and freeze for roasties later. Overripe tomatoes I make into a sauce. Old fruit can be puréed and frozen.

Stale bread for the birds trimmings of meat and bones for the fox, egg shells in compost heap. Lived here three months and not opened the food waste caddy yet.

Honestly? Four kids and a freezer. I freeze everything I can as I buy it. Nothing goes off. Leftovers are eaten

Every member of your family clears their plate at every meal? You’ve never once thrown out a courgette you’ve found at the bottom of the fridge? Goodness.

OP yes food waste is a massive problem in this society despite the astonishing number of Mumsnetters who have zero waste without even thinking about it………..

We are actively trying to reduce it also. Meal
planning definitely helps and even then we still ‘shop from the cupboard’ about once a
month, making a list of all the meals we can make before we have to go to the shops again. That helped a lot. We also went back to shopping ourselves (all online during Covid but also for a while afterwards given we’re both health care workers and it became easier) as we found we got given veges/fruit close to being overripe or even rotten. Shopping ourselves lets us stagger ripeness.

it still remains that in our home we don’t insisit on clearing plates at every meal as we consider that an unhealthy approach to food. There are still times when meal planning falls over because we’re working a lot, someone’s sick, we’re doing more than our usual level
of child and elderly adult care etc etc. So we’re trying, but still not always managing it.

Barely any food waste… the Ddog gets leftovers chopped into her food - if suitable, but I only buy and cook what I know we’ll eat.

The chicken carcass from Costco.
Occasionally a bit of bread.

Just to add some balance to this thread full of food wizards — …. far too much! Working on it

The majority of our food waste is bread. Peelings, tea bags etc go in the compost, dog will eat a few scraps left if anyone has left some dinner (which isn't often)

I can't eat the bread (cealiac) so all I can do is encourage the others to finish the loaf before it goes off.

Very little. I do occasionally find forgotten items in the vegetable bin in the fridge (a couple of mouldy carrots, a squishy courgette, a green potato) but mostly we eat everything we buy.

If something is nearing its date, I usually make an effort to use it up before it goes off. I make soup or stir fry it if the veg is a bit past its best but still edible.