Don't Throw Food Away Challenge

thehappybutterfly

ooh, what a fab thread! I am horrified at the amount of food I throw away - it's shocking. I'm a bit paranoid about use by dates and soft fruit and veg - 'if in doubt, throw it out' is my mantra.

I have no idea of the monetary value of my waste so I'm going to work it out for a month starting 23rd January to 22nd February. I will then set a challenge after that. Although, looking at the figures in Post #2, they seem very low

So, this is the food I throw away regularly:

• fruit - especially kiwis and grapes. I always use black bananas in cakes
• veg - potatoes and carrots usually
• meat - chicken, mince, whole beef joints :eek: All taken out the freezer and just not used in time
• cheese - not packaged properly so it goes hard and sometimes mouldy
• yogurt - out of date
• half cartons of cream, nat yog, creme fraiche - only use a portion in cooking and never use the rest of it
• jarred pesto (I usually make my own but sometimes......)
• the first and last 2 slices of bread - I always dig down to the third or fourth slice and bypass the first two as they're 'a bit hard'
• fresh herbs - gone black and slimy
• fresh garlic - started growing green shoots
• leftovers from previous meals - keep forgetting they're there
• jars of mustard/apple sauce/mint sauce - buy them as accompaniments then get bored. I always forget how long they've been opened so I throw them away 'just in case'

Does anyone abide by the 'once opened, refrigerate and use within 6 weeks' rule?

Lilyplonk

Much of the time I ignore the 'use within 6 weeks' guidelines - depending on what it is.

If it's jam / marmalade / tomato sauce etc forget it! Those never used to have anything like that on the bottles - and that was back in the days before we all had fridges etc. I'd like to bet that tomato sauce sat in my nan's cupboard for absolutely ages before it got used up OR just rinsed out and put into a pan of hotpot. We even used to have to 'scrape around' the screw top to get it to fasten sometimes . With jam/marmalade, she used to just remove any 'furry bits' with the tip of the spoon .

And as for pickles / vinegar / chutneys - what the heck is that all about ............. :rotfl:. The vinegar preserves stuff quite well enough for them to get used up before they go off.


On the other hand, things like mayonnaise / salad cream / creamy dressings - I'd be a bit more dubious about, and stick to the 6wk rule.

Yoghurts - I've used them for myself when they're a couple of days past their use-by date - but I wouldn't give them to young kiddies, pregnant women or elderly folks.

Meat - I don't take it out of the freezer until the night before it's going to definitely be used. If it still 'escapes' being used - cook it just the same - it can be re-frozen once it's been cooked. With mince - just cook it off with some onions and veg and portion up into containers ready for making up into other concoctions such as Spag Bol / Chilli / Cottage Pie / Savoury Mince Pie Filling / topping Jacket Pots.

Cheese - I clingfilm it as soon as I've opened the pack then put it back into the pack wrapper so that it tells me what type it is and a guideline for the 'use-by date'. Even so, if it develops a 'hard bit' you could just grate it off and use on toast or chuck it away. Way-back-when, we even used to just cut off any mouldy bits .........

Veggies - prep, blanche them and freeze for using as and when. Mushrooms will freeze, but not be good enough for cooking as a veg. They're ok for putting into a casserole-style meal though. I even buy the large bags of 'basic onions', peel, slice/dice and freeze in a large bag. They get used a handful at a time in all types of savoury meat meals - though they can't be used for 'sliced or fried onions'.

Apples - these often go unused in my house. I cook them off and freeze when cooked. Can be used for apple pie filling OR apple sauce when having pork dishes.

Grapes - don't let them go off - freeze them and use frozen. Jamie recommends these as 'frozen treats'.

I'd just recommend only buying enough fruit to get you by for a few days or a week at the most - just don't 'overbuy'.

Fresh herbs - not much we can do about those. I have sometimes frozen things like chopped chives and coriander, but have a tendency to use dried more than anything. You could always try growing your own - but only plant a few at a time sowing at 3weekly intervals, so you can have a small constant supply.

Cream - if you open a carton of double cream and only use a small amount, you can whip the rest and pipe into large rosettes. Open freeze on greaseproof paper and then pack into a lidded container when solid.

Tomato Puree / Garlic Puree / Passata - I use it when first opened and then squeeze the remainder into ice cube trays and freeze. When solid, I then put them into freezer bags and stick them into the top freezer drawer where they're handiest for quick using up.

Hope some of that is useful for you. It's what I do - and it works for me .

WelshWoofer

Been shopping and that's usually the day that the dubious stuff goes from the fridge to the bin - happily, the only thing that went to food heaven was half a bag of spinach.:o Original cost £1 so 50p wasted.
I find that even a small bag is too much as I usually only use it as a salad leaf or in sandwiches. Can you freeze it?

So I'm up to £1.25 waste since the beginning of the challenge from a £5 budget. Still an improvement for me!

thehappybutterfly

Lilyplonk wrote: »

Much of the time I ignore the 'use within 6 weeks' guidelines - depending on what it is.

If it's jam / marmalade / tomato sauce etc forget it! Those never used to have anything like that on the bottles - and that was back in the days before we all had fridges etc. I'd like to bet that tomato sauce sat in my nan's cupboard for absolutely ages before it got used up OR just rinsed out and put into a pan of hotpot. We even used to have to 'scrape around' the screw top to get it to fasten sometimes . With jam/marmalade, she used to just remove any 'furry bits' with the tip of the spoon .

And as for pickles / vinegar / chutneys - what the heck is that all about ............. :rotfl:. The vinegar preserves stuff quite well enough for them to get used up before they go off.


On the other hand, things like mayonnaise / salad cream / creamy dressings - I'd be a bit more dubious about, and stick to the 6wk rule.

Yoghurts - I've used them for myself when they're a couple of days past their use-by date - but I wouldn't give them to young kiddies, pregnant women or elderly folks.

Meat - I don't take it out of the freezer until the night before it's going to definitely be used. If it still 'escapes' being used - cook it just the same - it can be re-frozen once it's been cooked. With mince - just cook it off with some onions and veg and portion up into containers ready for making up into other concoctions such as Spag Bol / Chilli / Cottage Pie / Savoury Mince Pie Filling / topping Jacket Pots.

Cheese - I clingfilm it as soon as I've opened the pack then put it back into the pack wrapper so that it tells me what type it is and a guideline for the 'use-by date'. Even so, if it develops a 'hard bit' you could just grate it off and use on toast or chuck it away. Way-back-when, we even used to just cut off any mouldy bits .........

Veggies - prep, blanche them and freeze for using as and when. Mushrooms will freeze, but not be good enough for cooking as a veg. They're ok for putting into a casserole-style meal though. I even buy the large bags of 'basic onions', peel, slice/dice and freeze in a large bag. They get used a handful at a time in all types of savoury meat meals - though they can't be used for 'sliced or fried onions'.

Apples - these often go unused in my house. I cook them off and freeze when cooked. Can be used for apple pie filling OR apple sauce when having pork dishes.

Grapes - don't let them go off - freeze them and use frozen. Jamie recommends these as 'frozen treats'.

I'd just recommend only buying enough fruit to get you by for a few days or a week at the most - just don't 'overbuy'.

Fresh herbs - not much we can do about those. I have sometimes frozen things like chopped chives and coriander, but have a tendency to use dried more than anything. You could always try growing your own - but only plant a few at a time sowing at 3weekly intervals, so you can have a small constant supply.

Cream - if you open a carton of double cream and only use a small amount, you can whip the rest and pipe into large rosettes. Open freeze on greaseproof paper and then pack into a lidded container when solid.

Tomato Puree / Garlic Puree / Passata - I use it when first opened and then squeeze the remainder into ice cube trays and freeze. When solid, I then put them into freezer bags and stick them into the top freezer drawer where they're handiest for quick using up.

Hope some of that is useful for you. It's what I do - and it works for me .

Thanks Lilyplonk - some very helpful tips!

I've read about half the thread and have picked up some more tips but I think I might stop buying things like fresh herbs, garlic and ginger. I use a lot of these but in fits and starts - I think I'll start buying the tubes of herbs and 'Lazy' jars of garlic and ginger. It's probably more expensive but if it means I throw less away......

thehappybutterfly

A lot of my problem is just being disorganised. I mean, it takes minutes to portion, bag and freeze meat and I have a chest freezer so really no excuse. Note to self: must do better.

Solstice_3

Just want to add breadcrumbs to the tips list - the crusts or leftover bread can be left to go stale and then put in a food processor and blitzed into breadcrumbs then frozen - though I always keep a pot in the fridge and freeze my stale ends

Threw away a bad apple today, will price up later as it was from a fruit bag. Didn't throw away my onion ends today! Chucked them in a bag in my freezer to go in stock

What veg do you keep for stock and what veg do you find has too strong a flavour? I personally wouldn't use pepper in a stock but am wondering if courgette ends would be ok in a veg stock?

DawnW

I think courgette ends would be fine in a veg stock.

Firemunchkin

I started doing this last year and eventually got the OH involved too. We got into really good habits and we hardly ever throw anything away now. Sometimes though we need a bit of inspiration (like what on earth to do with the leftover blue cheese from Christmas?!) so I'd like to put us down for £10 wastage per month. It will start from the end of next week though as we're still on this month's food budget.

Karb

Leftover blue cheese, Firemunchkin? I tried this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3004/blue-cheese-pasta and it was wonderful. I didn't have any walnuts so I left those out, but I added in some leftover bacon.

meg72

Karb wrote: »

Leftover blue cheese, Firemunchkin? I tried this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3004/blue-cheese-pasta and it was wonderful. I didn't have any walnuts so I left those out, but I added in some leftover bacon.

I used a small lump of leftover blue cheesechopping and adding it to quiche I was making.It was really nice am tempted now to buy a piece if I see it reduced just to do this again.

Also a friend used hers by putting it in the food processor with natural yogurt and made a lovely dip.