Bath & North East Somerset Council - Love Food Hate Waste campaign

Love Food Hate Waste campaign

It pays to be a food lover

Cook with leftover food - view our video
Why food waste is important
Find out about the food waste diary competition that we ran this autumn
Recipes for your leftovers from the Cookery School at Bordeaux Quay
Useful websites

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 in 2009. 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 you find out more about the kinds of food you waste at home (even if we don't think we waste anything) and helps you find out where and how you could reduce the amount of food you 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.

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.

Useful websites

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
www.westofengland.org/
www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk/
www.lakeland.co.uk/