Food Waste

If global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, just behind China and the US.

It is estimated that one-third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste, and one-third of that wastage is at the consumer level where we buy and throw away too much.

WOW!

The magnitude of the impact of food waste has really surprised me. Understandably it is an issue that needs to be addressed at all levels of the food chain. However, as a consumer there are still a lot of things that I can personally do to reduce my family’s food wastage. It won’t cost me anything (in fact it will probably save me money), and all I need to do is to invest a bit of my time into learning a few new tips and tricks!

There is a lot of good information out there but here is a quick rundown of what I am working on:

PLANNING AHEAD
I need to get much better at this. As I don’t enjoy cooking (or even just preparing food) I try to avoid thinking about it for as long as possible. However, I am now trying to plan our weekly meals so that I not only just buy what I absolutely need but also so that I stop buying a load of ‘just in case’ food and snacks that inevitably then go to waste.

SHOPPING SMART
Leading on from my meal plan, I now make sure that I always use a shopping list and actually store it in my phone so that there is no chance of doing my usual trick of forgetting it. (If my boys are with me they are also very good at not letting me buy anything that is not on the list!) In terms of what I am buying, I am also choosing to buy the ‘less than perfect food’ such as Morrisons ‘Wonky’ potatoes etc. This will hopefully in turn start to reduce the amount of wastage in the earlier stages of the food chain process.

STORING PROPERLY
To ensure that the food has the best chance of being used I am paying more attention as to how I store it. So my potatoes are now stored in a cotton bag instead of staying in their plastic bag (they last so much longer). I have also just found out that cheese shouldn’t be kept in sealed plastic. Luckily today I managed to buy my cheese from Morrisons Deli counter (it is not on display you have to ask for it) and it was wrapped in a paper bag. I have therefore just then put the paper bag in a half closed resealable plastic bag that I will reuse.

PORTION SIZES
Since I started buying my beef mince from the meat counter I now only use half the amount that I used to for my bolognaise each week! I have also bought a spaghetti measurer as I always used to overestimate and end up with too much. I am also now starting to read up on the recommended portion sizes for all of our meals and measuring it out more carefully rather than just going by eye!

FREEZING
I am learning how to make better use of my freezer. From bulk buying and freezing chicken breasts from the butchers last week (they are a lot bigger and freeze better than supermarket chicken), to making and freezing my own breadcrumbs from bread crusts. I have a lot to learn! (Labelling and dating is going to be very important!)

LEFTOVERS
I am making a real effort to ensure that I freeze or eat leftovers, as previously I would forget that they were there or choose to eat something else as I didn’t fancy it again, how bad is that?! In order to make the leftovers more edible/appealing in the first place I am also putting less on the plate to start with so that if it doesn’t get eaten then it hasn’t been played with on the plate so can be saved!

So it really is just a lot of small changes in my behaviour and routine that I need to make. There is a lot of information out there and so I am currently working my way through it all and even reading a recipe book that I got from the library about how to use leftovers. I have found quite a few exciting tips and tricks so far and will share them once I have tested they actually work! I think my biggest problem is actually going to be trying to predict what and how much my youngest will eat at each meal time?!