Food wastage

[forgotmyusername1]

Apparently the average family throws away £800 a year of food.

I can honestly say we throw next to nothing.

What are your top tips for avoiding food wastage?

Are you a user or a chucker?

I dont know about other people, we have very limited space so our fridge and freezer is integrated and under counter. They're small, very small, not deep and without tall shelf space. Its nothing to do with being aspirational or wealth, dont know why you would even mention that.

I notice it a lot when we go away on holiday

I noticed it recently when recipe I was doing called for putting the dough in the fridge for an hour, literally no room. I have no space for putting a tray of anything in the freezer or fridge to chill, the freezer is full of bags of veggies (which take up so much space, its a shame you cant buy them in smaller amounts) and my frozen meals. Unless I want to eat the same thing over and over again I need to have a lot in there for variety (and thats dependent on me remembering what is in each tub!)

I have a lot of plastic tubs and pots that all my meals go into, I dont consider that a bad thing

I'm thinking people are just overbuying. On shopping day our fridge is cleared out of all but condiments and a small amount of whatever is left of what we buy every week. Sometimes things are completely gone a day early. We then, of course use up a block of cheese or tub of yoghurt before starting the new one. How are people ending up with food waste, just too much money to spend?

I also think lots of people buy automatically without thinking properly. I have a chest freezer. It’s generally pretty full. I reckon we could eat for a month out of it so it’s my mission to do that this month. I do have a good pantry to supplement it though plus eggs from chickens and a vegetable garden which currently has masses of purple sprouting broccoli and perpetual spinach

Some good tips here. I definitely don’t throw away £800 a year but do end up with some wastage. I think my wastage is for a few reasons…

1. small freezer means I don’t always have space to chuck stuff in there
2. DP works away and isn’t very consistent with when he comes back so tricky to plan for his sandwiches, meals etc.
3. DS (12 year old) changes mind about what he wants to eat or goes out with friends so I’ll buy a pack of ham at the beginning of the holidays for example and then he ends up not eating it.
4. 3 year old DD. I try to serve a really small portion initially and she’s generally a really good eater but inevitably sometimes it’s rejected.

things I do find work…

1. DC eat wraps a lot, they last a while before going mouldy and can be made into Quesadillas or pizzas etc too.
2. DS buys food at school - expensive but means he can buy and eat what he wants so no waste. I know if I made him packed lunches they’d come home half eaten.
3. i make a fridge bottom veg soup and eat it for my lunches.

I do my best not to waste food but there's an awful lot of mental effort and planning going on on this thread and I do not have the time or the energy to do half of what most of these posters are doing. It's paying for ease and convenience

I agree, I do meal plan, use my freezer etc but can still get to the end of the week with bits of food that’s gone off. I might buy yoghurt to have with granola for breakfast but not want that every day so there comes a point that the yoghurt goes bad even ignoring use by dates. Life doesn’t always go to plan so the meal i had organised doesn’t get eaten, or kids are sick and off their food, or I’m not at home as I had planned to be, or whatever.

Yes it would be fine if I organised my food and meals with military precision but realistically it’s food, we eat well and waste as little as possible but I’m not going to be a slave to a meal plan. If that means some soggy veg go in the bin, so be it.

Buying a pack of ham doesn't mean you have to have ham sandwiches for a week or chuck it in the bin.

//

Or it's a simple as - if we're not all gong to make sure the ham is used up we don't buy it. Make a sandwich with another filling.

How are people struggling so much to use a pack of ham? The smaller ones make a couple of (not particularly filled) sandwiches or it could be used in salads, omelettes, used to wrap chicken, on pizza, etc etc.

There really isn't that much effort involved in meal planning. Worse case scenario you end up with some odds and ends and left overs you just accept that's one night you'll be having a very random tea! If anything it may spark a bit or creativity on some people and it's a nice feeling to know you've saved stuff from the bin

Yeah, to me, ham seems quite expensive too, so we also have egg, tuna or cheese for sandwiches, to reduce the overall cost of sandwiches over the week/month.

Or if people really only want one ham sandwich in a blue moon, it's probably cheaper to just buy a ready made one than buy a whole pack of ham and throw most of it away.

I don't get this 'not wanting' what you've bought. What are these people eating instead? I eat what I've bought because that's what is available. Alternatives are only the storecupboard things. I guess I could make porridge everyday if I didn't want to eat the eggs I'd bought, but I wouldn't have bought enough milk to do that.

We have in the past chucked bits of manky salad from bags away and o feel shit about that. So I just don't buy it now, just get little gem types ones which definitely stay nicer for longer.

Thats quite limiting though isnt it

Ive found this myself, I now dont buy cucumber for example, as I cant get through it before it goes off, smaller ones might just be ok.

I can buy the mini cucumbers but they come in a pack which I also cant get through before they start going all horrible,

So basically I miss out on cucmbers which I love but cant eat a lot of

Similarly there is now half a watermelon in the fridge, Been there for a week already. I doubt I will get through it. They dont come in smaller amounts.

Bagged salad, never buy it now after chucking it out over the years, so I miss out on that.

I dont eat ham personally but understand that someone might need a bit of ham for one dish and then be stuck with ham. I find myself eating a lack of variety in trying to use things up, same thing over and over, or only making things which I can freeze and heat up, but that calls for batch cooking which calls for ingredients, not all of which I will use up.

I currently have a zested orange and zested lemon in the fridge. They have been there for weeks. They look ok. I have no idea what to do with them. I dont need the juice. Cant bear to throw them away but I think their time has come.

It's not "mental effort" in this house. Meat goes in the freezer straight away usually - because 95% of meat/fish I buy has a reduced to clear sticker on it! Then when it's time for a trip to the supermarket, I have a quick scan through the freezer to remind myself what's in there. If there's mince, get kidney beans and passata for a chilli. Always have bits of chicken - maybe a pie, or get wraps or something. Similarly keep an eye on what's in the fridge and what's getting towards the end of its life and use accordingly.

Surely that's just common sense, whatever your income level? Using up what you have, rather than chucking out perfectly good food and buying more? I just can't get my head round people actively wasting money. Or if you've planned to have chicken pie or something which is already out and prepared, and the other person in the house fancies a takeaway pizza, chucking out the pie and buying the pizza? Why wouldn't you say that the pie is already made, so eat that and we'll get pizza tomorrow?

I don't get this 'not wanting' what you've bought.

You seriously never get to Thursday and just not fancy what you bought and planned the Saturday before?

Agree on wraps - I also often take a bag out of tye freezer and if they haven't been used in a few days stick them back in for another day. Some probably come out and in again several times nobody has been I'll yet though

Then just make something different with the fresh ingredients? What else am I going to eat other than what is in the fridge? The only alternative would be a storecupboard meal like tuna chilli pasta.

I seriously think this is a rich people problem!

We waste almost nothing but I think that is because I do lots of small shops rather than one massive shop. I don't think I could get it exactly right if I wasn't adjusting daily for fresh food.

I don't think most of us are talking about using yoghurt which has grown fur or salad which is in a putrified puddle

There are people who will eat half a lasagne and chuck the rest of the bin rather than keeping it for another day (either in the freezer or fridge) or people who will chuck out perfectly edible food because of their belief it turns to poison at the stroke of midnight (aka the Catherine tate sketch)

These are the people wasting food

What are these people eating instead?

The other food in the house? My freezer is usually stocked with stuff I’ve batch cooked - chilli, bolognaise, lasagne, casseroles etc. if I’m making something like that I’ll make double. There’s also quick meals, pizza etc. I meal plan but there’s always something in the freezer for variety sake.

If I really don’t fancy the thing I had planned, I’ll have something else or god forbid I might fancy a takeaway on an odd night. The food I had planned is either used another night or goes in the freezer.

The food I had planned is either used another night or goes in the freezer.

And there's nothing wrong with that, because you're not wasting it.

@soupfiend I currently have a zested orange and zested lemon in the fridge. They have been there for weeks. They look ok. I have no idea what to do with them. I dont need the juice. Cant bear to throw them away but I think their time has come

If you drink G&T (or similar drinks) you can slice old citrus fruit and freeze in ice cubes or bags/tubs etc. That's one of my favourite MN tips, but I realise you may not be able to make use of it due to limited freezer space.

(The comment about aspiration was to try and pre-empt the inevitable whataboutery and your comment about 'lovely big fridges and freezers' and how we have to account for people who routinely buy food simply to throw it away a week later it seems but are apparently unable to run an almost ubiquitous household appliance that would go a long way towards being unable to store food they're not going use in the short term).

@soupfiend I currently have a zested orange and zested lemon in the fridge. They have been there for weeks. They look ok. I have no idea what to do with them. I dont need the juice. Cant bear to throw them away but I think their time has come

Squeeze the juice and freeze in an ice cube tray, use the cubes for things that need a dash of citrus. Not that I could be arsed to be honest with that level of faff, I’d make a lemon drizzle cake, which will be fine with a mix of lemon and lime.

So your food is not wasted then? I'm talking about people eating something different, then throwing out the original food. If I decided to stop at the supermarket to buy something different out of next week's food budget, I'd still need to eat what I'd bought, whether I cook and freeze or whatever. Or I will be short next week.

I would put it in a g&t or make a cake with it

Probably why I can't wear skinny jeans