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.

Please note your comments may be used by Unilever and MN on the web, social media channels and possibly elsewhere. Please only add your comment if you're happy for it to be used like this. All comments used will be anon.

thanks and good luck
MNHQ

NAKED LEMONS!!!!! when my daughter and I are cooking / baking something and it calls for the rind / zest of a lemon, the lemon then goes back in the fridge because someone is bound to want it for something in the next few days.... But no. One week I threw out 4 naked shrivelled up lemons, what a waste

Good intentions

Bags of salad and the ends of cucumbers are the worst waste here. I'm big on freezing bits and pieces, so have lots of little bags of things in the freezer. Also I often base my lunch on leftovers so not much gets thrown out really.

How about cutting the leftover lemons into quarters & freezing, use for drinks etc

Houmous - gets opened at the weekend then never used in the week
Cream - usually half a carton left having used half in a recipe
Plain yoghurt - as above
Any special veg like ginger, spring onions, etc

Usually find a left over pot of Hummus that has to be binned but not much else.

There's always a rogue carrot slowly mummifying in my fridge! Only one though - we love carrots as a rule... :)

crème fraiche

yy to cottage cheese - I like the idea more than the reality.

Tomatoes, bags of lettuce, spinach leaves.

Also nearly finished jars of jam. I think no one wants to be the person to rinse the jar out for recycling, lazy beggars...

Pate, it's always the pate :-) It gets half eaten then forgotton about every time!

A nearly finished jar of Thai curry paste
A dried lime segment
A container of sweet corn or baked beans.

A green pepper
Onion
Garlic cloves

Lettuce
The green pepper from the mixed pack
Half a tin of chopped tomatoes/baked beans
Egg yolks after making meringue
And homemade redcurrant jelly from July

Post-apocalypse, we'll all be eating roasted artichoke hearts and jalapeno peppers. And PIL's inedible tomato chutney--

i always end up binning the tomatoes, cucumber and sliced cooked meats!! xx

salad veg!

Usually some sauces with little left in the bottle, or fruit/veg in the bottom containers...

lettuce and red peppers tend to get left until last in our house.

coleslaw and sandwich fillers always forget ive open them

I always end up cooking too much rice and a bit ends up in the fridge. But never enough to really do anything with. So about a week later it gets thrown out.

I always end up binning half used jars, things like pesto, sun dried tomatoes, curry pastes. It's shameful because I know I could freeze them in small tubs and use them up later, but I do intend to use them and then just don't!!

I'm pretty good with fresh as DONT buy too much seeing as I live near the grocers. I do however occasionally bin half bags of salad and wilted spring onions!

Things that endure in my fridge are most of the things I can throw into soup to use up!

gosh our fridge is always full of stuff half opened and used then left until weekend when i empty out the old stuff and put in the new. The worst is my hubby who buys cheese all the time, opens it and has a slice then its left open to go hard and manky so he needs to buy some more !

theres always mushrooms and baked beans that have been leftover to be reheated, but never get round to making another meal that they would go with!

Always seems to be the remains of sweet peppers

yogurts, I buy them with the best intention of eating them instead of snacking on chocolate goodies but instead I open the fridge look at them and then go and munch chocolate anyway.