Can we have a 'how much food do you throw away?' thread?

[captainmummy]

You know how there's lots in the papers at the mo about how much good food we throw away? I thought I never did this, but I've been more conscious of our wastebin lately, with the threat of fortnightly collectins, and I realised yesterday that I threw away a half-pack of (budget) parsnips that had gone slimy, and a packet of 6 fromage-fraises that were 2 weeks out of date. (altho I did compost them)

So what do you throw out? And why?

Fliberty - sour milk in scones? Really? I do get a lot of off-milk, sometimes the dc will drink a pint a day, other times not for a week. I get it from the milkman so can't buy as we run out, but do occassionally do milkshakes/rice puddings/cream soups/angel delight (!) but could do with some more recipes.

I throw stuff into DH' mouth and he eats it

Unless obvious signs of mould, which tbh is rare

Oh dear - I seem to be the minority here in throwing away far too much.

Dd is fussy and demanding about what she'll eat, and I never seem to know which days dh will be in the country until the last minute. Add to that the fact that I sometimes can't be arsed to cook what I'd planned if it's likely to be just me eating it, and the fact that I go off a lot of veg that I'd normally eat when pregnant, and it's a recipe for waste.

We eat all the food that we cook, but sometimes have to throw away meat and veg from the fridge.

We did well when I was on holiday for three weeks (and shopping every couple of days). We are much worse when I do a big shop for several days. My aupair is not a natural vegetable consumer, so much of what I buy goes untouched.

We chuck away loads. I try not to though.

For instance today I threw leftovers from a curry I had made in the week.(I would have frozen it but my freezer is full.)
Ham from the deli counter at sainsburys, Hubby hasnt been taking sandwiches he has been starting at 3.00pm, and hasnt been here for lunch.
Yoghurts that are a week out of date.
Lemons that have gone all shrivelled.
A cucumber that has gone all soft and disentegrated as I picked it up.
Lettuce prepacked that had gone all brown.
Bananas that the kids had taken as part of lunch, but hadnt eaten and had gone all black on the skin. They were fine when they left here that morning

I am making a concious effort to try and use things as I go now, as I was appalled at how much went in the bin .

FYI this dosent happen all the time to that extent.its mainly rooted potatoes that went into the bin, although now I make tons of mash out of it and freeze it

Mainly packaging. I bought a compost bin from the local council website, (£7) and we've been filling that up (kids are rather excited, although ds is somewhat sceptical that it will turn into compost).

Meat etc we give to cats, dinner leftovers cats again. I need to order a recycling box from the council for glass and such as when they gave everyone in the street a box they forgot me.

What do you do with packaging? Im at a loss there.

I'd love to have chickens but I think our garden is too small.

We chuck about half a carrier bag of things like veg that is too slimy for soup, really ancient bread, slightly mouldy fruit, leftovers that didn't get eaten etc away per week. I am reasonably good and make stock from bones and freeze it, make scones with slightly past its best milk, always hardboil eggs that are approaching their sell-by date as daughter adores a HB egg.

One great thing for us is that our council does a food waste/composting collection. This includes meat waste and cooked food. Since they started doing this, our throwing away rather than recycling waste has dramatically decreased. Also, it stops the rats/cats/foxes eating our binbags as there is no food in there.

I really ought to get a whizzer so I can make breadcrumbs out of the ancient bread.

I throw away lots more than I'd like to. No garden/outside access so no point composting. Also freezer fits one bag of peas, that's about it

I'm pretty good about rescuing things before they go off (or cutting off the manky bits!), but ds is at age where he mashes everything in his fist before eating - or throwing on the floor. There's no saving it!

The sour milk in scones is a good tip, we have that problem regularly. Like the Ready-Steady solution too. Perhaps we need a "top tips to avoid throwing food out" thread!

shinyshoes those black-skin bananas are the BEST for banana bread!!

Agree with Phd - any banana that are black or lightly too ripe can go in the freezer. Then when you make banana muffins/bread, use these, they are alreayd the right texture for cooking, minimal mashing required, just thaw and chuck in the bowl.

Oh dear I'm rubbish and throw away loads of food. I don't meal plan and am going to start because I just wander aimlessly buying things on offer or things that look nice and end up with loads of stuff that doesn't go together. I'm forever throwing out potatoes and brocolli. I buy pineapples regularly but they inevitably get throw away because they're a faff to chop up.

Can you just chop up the brocolli and freeze it or do you have to par boil it or something?

Is it just me though or do vegetables go off really quickly nowadays?

Fresh Brocolli needs to be blanched - so you need to chop it up and chuck it into boiling water for a few minutres, drain and cool, then freeze. A far better idea if you are short on time/energy is to buy it ready frozen. It keeps better, boils straight from the bag and is actually cheaper than the fresh (and got just as many vitamins etc).
Potaotes I don't throw out; if they are sprouting I put them in the garden (time of year depending, obv) - I have a vegetable plot, and they will grow into a new plant with loads of new potatoes on them. Same with onions that are sprouting, they'll grow into an Allium-type plant, with a seedhed that I can then stake down and the following year will have onions.
I have toooo much time on my hands....

PHDLifeNeedsaNewLife I keep meaning to look up a recipe for banana bread as we do chuck quite a few away. I will put that on my list of things to do for the week

shiny shoes - it's the same recipe for banana bread and for muffins. I use
10oz pl flour
1tesp baking powder
1 tesp bicarb
3 well-ripened large bananas
4 oz sugar
1 eg
3 oz buttter or corn oil
2 fl oz milk

mix dry ingreds. Beat wet ingreds, and then mix quickly together. Put into muffin cakes/loaf tin.
You can add choc chips if you like, or nuts.
Bake at 190C for 20-25 mins for muffins, longer for loaf.

What would I eat for lunch if I threw away leftovers from dinner?????????????

I don't throw any food away, ever.

I find that if I do a big weekly shop I end up throwing loads of food out as I either buy too much or people end up being out for dinner etc. So, even though it's a big faff, I walk home from work via the supermarket every day/every other day and just pick up things for the following day so I can be sure not to waste food and money.

Hardly anything. Fruit and veg waste goes in the compost, most other stuff in the dog and chickens.
If I have bread that getting a bit dry I blitz it into breadcrumbs and freeze for sprinkling on things or making fishcakes.
Our fortnightly compost collection takes any food waste including meat but we hardly ever put stuff like that in.

Actually, I've been monitoring the bin for a while, and most of the rubbish is just packaging. Plastic bottles I recycyle, but yoghurt pots/plastic trays/tetrapacks have to go in th bin.
And I must get chickens, they seem like an excellent way of recycling!

almost nothing i think- i compost all peelings, eggs shells, tea bags etc. Stale bread or cereal goes out for the birds. And if we have left overs that won't be eaten, the dog usually gets them! I usually freeze a fair bit of our shop to prevent waste aswell.

Very little, but we are lucky in where we live.
I do a big online shop for dry goods etc every couple of weeks, then meat, veg, cheese etc we buy at the local farmers market or butcher/deli. I tend to buy these every couple of days and it means we buy as and when we need it so nothing really goes off.

I suspect people who do the most wasting will hide from this thread (I would if I were one of them).
Today I chucked into composting, admittedly a small bit of cucumber that had gone soggy. Even the pet rat won't touch that (heck, even the wild rats wouldn't have it).
That's the first food in a while that we truly wasted... at home. I am not sure how much of packed lunch the kids really do manage to eat.

Yesterday I threw away some packet salsa that was too nasty to eat and 3 egg whites because I'd made pasta from 8 egg yolks and only managed to use up 5 whites.

This thread is great - it's like a confessional. I feel much better now.

salad, hummus, taramasalta, bread, SALAD,manky cucumbers, oranges noone in our house can be bothered to peel them unless i do loads for everyone. easter eggs.