Come on, be honest: what ends up languishing at the back of your fridge at the end of the week? 'Fess up about your most neglected foodstuffs to Unilever Project Sunlight - and be in with a chance to win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Most of us make an effort to plan our shop and minimise food waste, but even with the best will in the world, all too often we end up with items left over - and the people from the Unilever Project Sunlight would like to know which are your repeat waste offenders. Is there a fruit that always gathers mould at the bottom of the bowl? Or what about the last spoonful of pasta sauce that you swore you'd use up? Are you afflicted by unconsumed anchovies? Stressed out by surplus celery?

Please share what - despite your best efforts - you find yourself regularly binning on kitchen clean out day. And just to even things up a bit, why not let us know which foods you'd rate as your enduring heroes: the ones that could sit happily on your shelves and emerge perfectly edible even in the event of a nuclear apocalypse ...

Add your comment to the thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a a £250 voucher for the store of their choice.

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thanks and good luck
MNHQ

i bin leftovers as they never get eaten anyway

parsnips often linger and moulder, as do courgettes. squirty cream never gets finished before it goes green bleurgh

apart from that we are quite good

my fridge seems to manage to keep apples for months, if only it could do the same for onions and carrots and new potatoes. they always seem to leave a beautiful brown sludge in the bottom of the fridge by the time I get to them, couldnt even cut the good bits off

Mine unused items would be half used pots of cream, evaporated milk - can't stand it but DH likes it. Also mushrooms, only liked by DH, everyone can't stand them. I do still use them, even when they look a bit wrinkly!!

Anything that DS chooses for lunch that comes in big packs. We still have BBQ chicken drumsticks in the freezer from a month ago.

soft cheese. usually buy a small tub from aldi, but since dd went off it in her sandwiches, I never seem to get through a whole tub.

apples are also highly likely to go off.

Always end up with some kind of salad or veg leftovers- usually half a pepper, some soggy/liquid cucumber and the odd bendy carrot. That's just the veg drawer- the main bit of the fridge ends up having a jar of pesto(always pay a fortune for a nice brand to use in a recipe and then only end up using a spoonful). I'm never sure of the date I open it so end up leaving it til it's been in there a good 4-5 weeks to justify me throwing it away! Was gutted to find some old yoghurts that I thought I'd eaten. Even though they're good bacteria I throw them away at even a couple of days over the use by date.

i am at my wits end with this and many other things. I have three grown up kids living with me ( i just can't get them to fuck off) DD and partner have top shelf of fridge, ds has bottom and we have salad drawer and a shelf.

i am the only silly bastard mug to empty fridge of moldy bollockses, and WTAF is it with leaving empty packets in the fridge.

biggest repeat offenders is sandwich meat. the last effing slice left in the bottom of a packet until it is brown and curly

and bits of effing cheese too small to grate or put on a butty - BIN IT FFS

dont get me started, i am being driven nuts

Salad. Always goes 'wet' despite my best intentions..

Pesto. Once opened and put in the fridge door it takes on 'invisibility'. I can't see it again until it has gone mouldy.

Skimmed milk, just my DH drinks the horrible stuff but it he has just a drop in cups of tea and the bottle generally goes off before he's half way through

Stir fry veggies, buy but then DH doesn't feel like it and...

Packets of mushrooms I forget to use

Half finished tubs of cream, soured cream etc - things I buy to cook with but the tubs are always too big and the remainder gets forgotten about. Same with fresh herbs (the last lot I bought I forgot to put in the cooking in the first place - doh)

General salad stuff gets chucked - leafy mostly, milk (although the farm cats do get it if it's not gone too far), cream cheese, odds and sods of dips. Berries that arrive worse for wear thanks to rubbish online shopping/packers. Half packs of coleslaw. yoghurts.

Things that last - eggs (I do the float test to check), chilled tomato sauce lasts for ages without going mouldy, cured hams.

Even if I meal plan, we still end up throwing some out because the OH will eat at his parents instead of at home, or plans change and some things can't be frozen.

I'm trying to think of a recipe that uses....

Lettuce
Spring Onions
Pesto
Passata
Mouldy bits of cheese

... and Hummous. WTF do you do with that...????

Ditto coleslaw. Food of the devil.

I tend I try to buy only what i need as i'd end up buying meals which went out of date, so now it tends to be things likes mayonnaise, pate, pesto, spreads etc which you maybe have twice then goes out of date before you're ready to eat it again

The things that go off in our fridge are ginger, cucumber, lettuce, spring onions and leeks! Stuff that's a bit on the wrinkly side (peppers, carrots, mushrooms, courgettes) goes in a chuck it in casserole, makes for some interesting dinners!
I do get miffed with pesto and tomato puree in jars going off; tend to go with the tubes of tomato puree, they last forever!
My fridge heroes are anchovies in olive oil (I swear they last forever!), bio pot yogurt and various chilli jams and chutneys (also seem to last forever).

I am the only one who likes cottage cheese or coleslaw, or hummus, deli items..etc..

So if I ever fancy them, I buy, then the remainder gets thrown away at the end of the week.
I tend not to buy them anymore now.

Short use by dates, and the tubs are far too large for one person!

Lettuce always lingers too long in our house.
Agree on houmous and any suchlike dips that appear nice for a Friday night tea (fajitas) or to dip kettle chips in, but never seem appealing at any other time.

The stayers are tinned tomatoes, and cheese if (dh I am looking at you) it is wrapped back up correctly.

Coleslaw doesn't always get finished and sometimes pears turn to mush but generally not a lot.

Hummus, passata, cheese etc can all be frozen. Pesto gets used up flavouring tomato based soup or cheese on toast. Sour cream/yogurt goes in cakes or mixed with cheese to make sauce for enchiladas that contain left over vegetables.

Lettuce seems to be a lurker. Cheap yogurts which have been usurped by flashier, tastier ones and ham (not naice ham though).

Last week I was looking for the other half of a pasta sauce jar that DD had leftover from making herself a quick lunch. I couldn't find it, so figured she had used the whole jar. This evening I found it in the cupboard, going mouldy! DD is 14.

I've been buying big bags of kale or spring greens and cooking it all in one go, to save on time. This usually works with most other vegetables and they get used up in a day or so, but not for this. It seems to be too unappealing and slimy cold and the smell is putting me off from using it. So, I've just started to mix any leftover greens with the leftover main meal (e.g. bolognese or stew) so that it gets put into frozen meals.

I always throw away at least half of those ready washed bags of salad (sometimes unopened... )

Recently I have also thrown away a lot of beetroot as I hadn't quite got round to making beetroot brownies - on about 4 separate occasions! I have noticed this is a pretty common occurrence with any vegetable or ingredient that isn't in my daily repertoire!

Jam, pickles, curry pastes, tomato puree and Parmesan cheese seem to last forever in my fridge.

I always have some fresh herbs or salad hiding at the back of the fridge and decomposing. Plus there's often something the children have begged me to buy which they then decide they don't want to eat. So frustrating!

Avocados
Spreadable cheese
The odd satsuma
Celery
Nothing else really

Cream, salsa, dips....there are only 2 of us and the pots are too big!