Admit it - anyone thrown away food they bought recently?

[alloutoffucks]

Lots of people including me are saying how hard it is getting in some places to buy fresh vegetables and meat. So admit it. Has anyone recently bought too much and ended up throwing it away?

Ninkanink - we’ve tried most of the milk alternatives and she’s not keen (I personally use oat milk a fair bit over regular milk). Almond milk has also been sold out round here too. Soya milk is pretty much all that’s left.
I will give it another few days of searching then go to plan B. We will clear out a shelf in the freezer (by eating the food obviously) and just freeze some cartons of fresh lacto free). My freezer isn’t that big so I was hoping to avoid having to do that but I can see it being the best option in the circumstances. And it will give me an excuse to eat too much ice cream. The tubs take up a lot of space so it makes sense to use them up to free up some room

Nothing. My shopping habits haven’t changed.

I have the virus. All the extra toilet roll, water and food selfish wankers have stock piled on is not needed.

Try to swallow is incredibly hard. And as much as I love water, to prevent dehydration it’s not enough.

nink I did your last idea - onions and peppers cooked till soft and sticky, fried with meat sliced thinly and eaten on part baked baguette that I crisped up in the oven. It was lovely, thanks!! And I now have 500g left for something else

Yay I’m glad you liked it! 👍

You could freeze the meat too, so if you slice half of it up you can save that for a later date and still have enough for another meal.

Thanks! Probably going to be sausage, fennel seed and PSB pasta tonight. We are quite pork-heavy these days for some reason, bacon, sausages, chops etc. Really missing fresh fish and shellfish!

Oh that sounds delicious! I love fennel.

Yes, we’ve got some battered haddock in the freezer, a couple of sea bass fillets and some smoked haddock (undyed, very hard to find here!) but no king prawns/seafood or other fish. We’ll be fine though. Have you got anchovies and tinned tuna? We love this dish:

www.ginodacampo.com/recipe/linguine-southern-italian-sauce-anchovies-capers/

I think it’s basically a puttanesca? Anyway, we often add a tin of tuna for extra protein and to avoid filling up on too much pasta. It’s reallu quite delicious. That might be a good solution in the interim until you can replenish fish stocks.

Fennel seed, rather! Although I love fennel too.

No. We've been shopping as usual.No shortage of fruit and veg in our local shops.

Oh well fingers crossed for lots of fish next time! We won’t be going to the shops at all for two, possibly three weeks, (extreme social distancing for the sake of others, because we’re able to without any issues) so we’ll use whatever we’ve already got for the foreseeable future.

I'm normally quite wasteful person (ashamed to admit but true). Today I made pancakes and the eggs are about a week past the date, I actually googled how to check if they were safe to eat and two were still fresh and two needed eating today. We used the eggs that needed using up, the other two went in the fridge. Normally, I wouldn't check and just dispose of them unless DH got to them first and used them.

I will be rethinking a lot of things now and going forward.

Oh my goodness, DD can only have soya milk. Hopefully, our supplies will last until everyone has filled their cupboards or got fed up of falling over the crates in the hall or whatever.

Thankfully it has got long dates on.

I've found myself with lots and lots of food, more than I need but not because of panic buying.
I have loads of flour and eggs because I use them for my baking business, now on hold. I went for a big shop on Monday, big for me £80 worth.
My mum brought a load of stuff round as she owns a cafe now closed and had loads of stock left over including lots of eggs, milk and fresh things that she can't freeze. My husband went out and bought a fair bit today without knowing what my mum was bringing over.
I've sorted it all out, delivered a big selection to my dad and cousin (left at the door).
Bag of flour and 6-12 eggs each for some of the neighbours I know, bit more depending on their household size.
I will eat everything that needs eating first and wasting nothing. We're having eggs and crusty bread for dinner, not that that isn't lovely to eat so not complaining but not a usual dinner.
I've asked neighbours too if they know anyone that needs anything and I'll give what I can.
I wouldn't dare throw anything away right now. I do hope the people that did panic buy are seeing the error of their ways and sharing what they have with others.

No. Am being very organised with our fresh food to make sure we eat it before it goes off. We'll run out of salad veg before our next delivery. Am making soup out of longer-lived veg like leeks and carrot, then freezing the extra portions. We're aware that sometimes we may eat a 'fractal meal' of odd things from time to time.

I have been eating the cabbage from the outside in... Peeling a few layers of leaves off seems to make it last longer than cutting into.it.

Most veg any soft bits can be cut off and the rest used if just on the turn.

Tomatoes that are going a little soft either freeze and use in cooking or roast/ grill. This works even when you have to cut the stalk end off if it is beginning to go there.

Use the broccoli stalk, it is really sweet. If the outside is too tough, cut it off to get the sweet inside. I also cooked with the cauliflower stalks.

Eggs are fine up to a month past bbd. Put in a bowl of water to check if they float. Throw any floaters away. Slightly rising at one end.. crack open, it the yolk is still raised they are fine to fry/ scramble.

I think this will happen later.
In a week or so, the fruits and vegs that havent been eaten.
In 3~6 months all the frozen stuff that nobody wants and are now out of date.
In 12+ months time when people will discover the tins they bought 'for the lockdown' at the bottom of the pantry.

:(:(

Potatoes, if any go green and sprouty, look up chitting potatoes and plant them in a hole in the ground.

?now, sadly, I think you may be right.

I almost cried when I saw that the bag of potatoes I'd bought had four or five heavily rotted potatoes inside. Not sprouty, rotten. I said to my husband, I'm throwing them out, and god willing, there'll never come a day I wished I had them back.

@QuestionMarkNow That certainly won’t happen in our household, nor in many others. I’m really hoping it won’t happen on a large scale.

Oh yes we always use the broccoli stalk.

I ignore expiry dates on everything but fish and chicken - I’m pretty careful with those and always ensure I use it up before it’s anywhere near danger zone so that it doesn’t go to waste.

@BlackeyedSusan there has been quite a lot of soy milk left in every supermarket I visited over the past couple of weeks so fingers crossed you will be ok.

I wish I read this before I emptied my fridge of all the fresh stuff my hypermesis didn't like the smell of. The amount I could have froze

I threw a raspberry away, the rest went on my breakfast

Tbh l feel guilty - never taking food for granted again

For those pps worried about not being able to get any or enough of a certain item essential for health or disability needs, do mention this to your friends, neighbours and extended family. Lots of people wouldn't mind looking out for these items for you as they do their own shopping or online orders, and getting up to 3 of them for you if available. I know I wouldn't mind at all being asked to help in this way. We all need to pull together, and also to recognise there are some individuals with special needs we could possibly help.

We're fairly well stocked at the moment but trying to make stuff go a bit further than usual. I almost never throw food away at the best of times, and especially now.

Dh went to Aldi on Thursday and stocked up on loads of food - we're not in UK and there was a very good selection. We won't need to shop again for well over a week, perhaps longer. The only thing he couldn't get was plain flour and dried yeast. I use a lot of flour as we bake a fair but. Have self raising so we'll manage.

I am managing the use of ingredients so we don't let anything go to waste. I am a good cook and have always enjoyed cooking but think it's going to grow a little tiresome when it's relentlessly every meal, every day with no cafes / restaurants / takeaways etc