Love Food Hate Waste?
It pays to be a food lover
Why food waste is important
Every year we throw away £4 billion worth of food because we
cook or prepare too much. This amounts to 6.7 million tonnes,
and most of this is food that could have been eaten! Each
month, the average family throws away £50 worth of food that was
bought but not eaten. Simply by not wasting food you could
save up to £600 a year.
Did you know?
Every day we throw away:
- 5 million potatoes
- 7 million slices of bread
- 1.3 million yoghurts and yoghurt drinks
When we waste food, we also waste the energy, water and
packaging involved in producing, transporting and storing the
food. What's more, food that gets sent to landfill
contributes to climate change as it creates methane gas when it
rots down!
The good news is that with a bit of thought we can stop most of
this waste from going to landfill and save ourselves up to £50 a
month by following some simple steps:
1. Find out more
For more detailed information about food waste and how you can
reduce it visit the Love Food Hate
Waste website.
2. Cook the right amount
Many of us waste food by overestimating what we need when buying
and cooking food. Find out how to cook just what you need by using
the Love Food Hate
Waste portion planner - simply type in the name of the food
you’d like to measure.
3. Plan ahead
Plan your meals and take a shopping list with you so that you
only buy the food you will eat. Beware of ‘buy one get one
free’ offers and only buy them if you know you will use or freeze
the extra one.
4. Use your leftovers
Any leftovers can be made into great new meals or why not take
them for your lunch the following day? For great ideas and recipes
for what to do with all sorts of leftovers go to Love Food Hate Waste. Simply type in the
food you have left over and choose the recipe to suit you.
5. Store food carefully
Keeping your fridge temperature between 1 and 5 degrees C will
help keep things for longer. Store items such as fruit in the
fridge to make them last.
Don’t forget to use your freezer! There are plenty of
things that you can keep in your freezer including many things you
may not have realised.
It’s also worth keeping a stock of staple, long lasting foods
such as rice, to help you cook up any left over food without having
to take an extra trip to the shops!
To find out more about the ways you can store your food go to
Love Food Hate
Waste.
6. Know your food labels
The most important food label to follow is the ‘Use by’ one.
Food which reaches its sell by date can still be eaten but may be
past its ‘Best before’ date – the exception to this are eggs which
should not be eaten after this date. For more information on
food labelling, please go to Love
Food Hate Waste.
Find out about the food waste diary
competition that we ran this autumn
During September and October the West of England Councils (Bath
& North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South
Gloucestershire) joined together to help you find out how to reduce
your food waste and win some great prizes.
The Winners
First prize was a cookery course worth £140,
for the winner and a friend donated by the Cookery School at
Bordeaux Quay and based at their restaurant in
Bristol (including travel) on Saturday 28th November. Naomi Hunt
from Bath won first prize for her suggestion of how to reduce food
waste by advising that people should:
- 'Forget the trendy TV chef's 'plating up' and
return to old fashioned vegetable dishes where every body in the
family served themselves, children can have a small taste of
something new, then if they like it have a second or third helping.
Result, no waste after meals. What is left in dishes can be used up
in numerous ways.'
5 Runners up prizes received a food waste
reduction pack worth £25 donated by Lakeland including
a spaghetti measure, Lock & Lock food containers, Avocado
Saver, Clip-Its and freezer labels. Their suggestions for reducing
food waste included:
- Add left over rice/veg/pasta/potatoes to a tin of soup to bulk
it out and make it taste better (if you don’t have time to make
your own soup)
- Dry citrus fruit skins and use when lighting open fires - good
kindling and smells great.
- Freeze all leftovers in freezer, when enough for a meal - heat
up and serve in individual dishes with tortillas/flat breads for
family to make yummy parcels of favourite leftovers. Light candles
and have fun napkins and make leftovers night a fun family meal. 2.
Make 'secret ingredient soup' (as in 'Kun Foo Panda') using up
dodgy veg in the fridge- family try to guess what's in it! Any veg,
tinned tomatoes, stock and pasta shapes. 3. Freeze bread crusts and
stale bread - make garlic croutons to have with soup (above) or
handy for trip to park to feed ducks. 4. Stale croissants make
lovely bread and butter pudding. 5. Can't beat 'bubble and squeak'
fry up old veg and stir in some pesto of an egg- tasty!
- Break down packets of food into smaller portions and freeze, do
this for bagels crumpets etc. defrost as required - no more mouldy
uneaten bread products!
- Bananas - if they haven't been eaten and you want to use
them up, put them in the oven when you are cooking something else.
Wrap them up in tin foil and bake until soft- approx. 20 minutes.
Unwrap and eat with a spoon, they are extra sweet when baked! Saves
wasting them.
Keep a food waste diary
Keeping a food waste diary can help us find out more about the
kinds of food we waste at home (even when we don't think we waste
anything) and helps us find out where and how we could reduce the
amount of food we throw away.
We are continuing to offer the 'Eat Well, Waste Less' recipe
book to anyone who completes a food waste diary and sends it in to
us and we will continue to record the results to give us a wider
picture of food waste in Bath and North East Somerset.
Download the food waste diary on this page or contact Council
Connect (01225 39 40 41 or councilconnect@bathnes.gov.uk )
to request a copy.
Fill this in over 7 consecutive days and include your
suggestions on how to waste less food. Return your diary to
us to receive your free Eat Well, Waste Less recipe book.
To return your completed food waste diary:
- complete it online, or
- email it to councilconnect@bathnes.gov.uk
or
- post it to Rethink Rubbish, FREEPOST, SWB 1833, Riverside,
Temple Street, Keynsham, BS31 1ZZ
Please note that the deadline for the competition has
expired. You will not be entered into the competition but can
still receive a food waste diary.
Recipes for your leftovers from the
Cookery School at Bordeaux Quay
View our video showing Mike Merelie, teacher at the Cookery
School at Bordeaux Quay, demonstrating how to make a delicious meal
using leftover cooked spaghetti, potatoes, and
beans.
You can find some great recipes for cooking your leftovers from
the Cookery School at Bordeaux Quay by following the link to
Bordeaux Quay recipes.
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
www.westofengland.org/
www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk/
www.lakeland.co.uk/
