Don't Throw Food Away Challenge

Frugalsod

sparrer wrote: »

I'm just watching a programme called Rip Off Britain:Food, which says the average household throws away £60-worth of produce a (here I though they were going to say year, but no) month!
As a mucky exercise I went through my food recycling bin, and have found half a melon skin and the seeds, two banana skins and a piece of soft potato - the rest of it was cooked as it was perfectly okay. That was three days worth of waste, I don't think it will add up to £6 a month, let alone £60 although to be fair there's only muttley and me at home. He gets all the waste veg, fat from the meat etc mixed up into home made dog biscuits.

Apparently 40% :eek: of what is grown commercially is wasted as 'not of suitable appearance for the consumer' but some supermarkets are beginning to sell what they're labelling as '2nds', ie fruit and veg that doesn't conform to appearance, straightness, no lumps and bumps etc (in other words what the home gardener grows!) at a very slightly reduced price.

The truth of what goes on to make money is horrific, I didn't realise we were being ripped off to that extent, or that we're such a wasteful nation. I know we live in a 'throw away' society but I didn't know it extended to about £2 worth of food a day!

I vote that everyone - the public and the food producers - should be made to subscribe to :money:

I suspect that what is not commercially suitable for shops is made into canned produce or used in some other way. It would still be of value somewhere. I suspect that the veg that are not great looking are prepared and either frozen or canned or pulped for ready meals.

I have never been wasteful and think I throw away less than £10 a year. Like you my food waste is absolutely minimal. When I cook a cauliflower everything goes in.

[Deleted User]

I won this challenge 17 years ago, I don't throw anything away. I don't buy what I can't use before it goes off, and I don't cook what I can't eat. I don't cook any recipes that use perishable ingredients unless they can be purchased in the quantity needed.

I threw away 20p worth of mushrooms about 15 years ago because I had overestimated how long they keep. Nowadays I always use them the same day. I shop every 5 days instead of weekly, because that's about as long as I reckon you can rely on fresh fruit keeping for.

THIRZAH

If you're not throwing away £60 worth of food a month and I'm certainly not does that mean that some people are throwing away more?

sparrer

Frugalsod wrote: »

I suspect that what is not commercially suitable for shops is made into canned produce or used in some other way. It would still be of value somewhere. I suspect that the veg that are not great looking are prepared and either frozen or canned or pulped for ready meals.

I have never been wasteful and think I throw away less than £10 a year. Like you my food waste is absolutely minimal. When I cook a cauliflower everything goes in.

They showed a field of pumpkins, the biggest of which were sold to supermarkets for Hallowe'en, the rest which were too small were left to rot. It was estimated to be some thousands, and that was just in one field. Fortunately a charity heard about it and went along to take as many as they could for homeless kitchens, etc. They did the same with other crops. It's heartbreaking, I just hope you're right and not all unwanted food grown in this country is left to spoil.

jack_pott wrote: »

I won this challenge 17 years ago, I don't throw anything away. I don't buy what I can't use before it goes off, and I don't cook what I can't eat. I don't cook any recipes that use perishable ingredients unless they can be purchased in the quantity needed.

I threw away 20p worth of mushrooms about 15 years ago because I had overestimated how long they keep. Nowadays I always use them the same day. I shop every 5 days instead of weekly, because that's about as long as I reckon you can rely on fresh fruit keeping for.

I do similar, shop on the two days a week that I go out and buy what I need for a few days although there are times I don't need to shop at all. Re mushrooms, my mother not only peels them but throws away the stalks :eek:. She lives too far for me to rescue them so I could weep at the waste.

THIRZAH wrote: »

If you're not throwing away £60 worth of food a month and I'm certainly not does that mean that some people are throwing away more?

Again ref my mother who is in her 90's and very comfortably off, will spend £50/£60 a week on food for her alone and much of that gets binned because when she's got it home she decides she doesn't fancy it after all. I suspect she makes up for the both of us!

chinagirl

I buy my meat from.my local Butcher. Very economical,I just ask for eg,4 sausages, or 3/4 lb of best steak mince, or 3 rashers of bacon. He also does deals on packs of meat, eg stewing steak, diced chicken breast - usually sells 3 x packs for a fiver. No waste, excellent value for money, and fresh proper fresh meats, which I can be confident have no erroneous substances ( horse ) added to it.

THIRZAH

I did waste some food last weekend.We were away with a group and had booked a meal.The meals came ready plated and there was far too much rice with my curry for me to eat. I also left the salad as it contained raw onion which I hate.

Frugalsod

chinagirl wrote: »

I buy my meat from.my local Butcher. Very economical,I just ask for eg,4 sausages, or 3/4 lb of best steak mince, or 3 rashers of bacon. He also does deals on packs of meat, eg stewing steak, diced chicken breast - usually sells 3 x packs for a fiver. No waste, excellent value for money, and fresh proper fresh meats, which I can be confident have no erroneous substances ( horse ) added to it.

My butcher is the same. Not as cheap as the supermarket but then I know exactly what it is.

Firemunchkin

It's been a while since I (or anyone!) posted here but I had a clear out of my fridge yesterday and, given how bad it was, I thought I'd post the results:

2 1/2 bananas (nearly black) - will make a banana cake this afternoon

carrots - the really soft ones I've peeled and blanched and frozen, the not so soft ones I've roasted and had with last night's roast lamb

plums (picked from an overhanging tree) - will make plum jelly to go with some good cheese

L/O red cabbage salad - will have with a chicken dinner tonight

1/2 lettuce - had gone mushy, so chucked - est 40p wastage

1/2 jar vine leaves - they were horrible so chucked - est 1.50p wastage

large bowl of homemade humus (not enough tahini) - est 60p wastage

oranges (too ripe for eating raw) - two will go in courgette fairy cakes, the really overripe ones will feed the butterflies

corn on cob - to add to chicken dinner tonight

cucumber - will buy some Greek yoghurt and make tzatziki

courgettes - 2 mouldy so chucked (est 50p wastage), 1 going in fairy cakes and 1 going in Mediterranean vegetable side dish for Tuesday night's dinner.

bunch beetroot - gone mouldy so chucked (with me crying, I bloody love the stuff so can't understand how we left it at the bottom of the fridge drawer to go off!!:() - est 1.00p wastage

small bunch of mint - will go in some tea

bunch of sage - chopped up and frozen in some water

1/2 white cabbage - will braise with bacon & thyme as a side dish to chicken

spring greens (LOTS!) - spring green tart also with the L/O creme fraiche

seedless red grapes - doing very well despite being a week past the BB date. DH ate a handful, washed and froze a handful and another handful is currently soaking in dark rum and will be smothered in melted chocolate later this afternoon. :rotfl:

reduced strawberries - purchased with the intention of making strawberry martinis but forgot - 20p wastage

very old and dry L/O bunch coriander - chucked - est 10p wastage


Total estimated wastage this week: 4.30p :eek:


Usually we are better than this - I am still coming up with inventive ways of using food up - but we took our eye off the ball over the last couple of weeks. I am trying to hand over 'management' of the weekly menu/food shopping to DH but the transitional phase is proving costly!

Frugalsod

This week has been very good. Just a corn cob husk and lots of empty packets. Waste this last week has been zero. I only use a supermarket bag for rubbish but will have to throw it out early because I have put in a bag that contained some fish, so will be getting smelly tomorrow.

moments_of_sanity

No waste for me this week, I have made nectarine jam with a punnet of them as didn't look like the kids were going to eat them and I don't like them but don't mind them mixed with yogurt or on toast. I have also made some banana muffins, we had 3 very sad looking ones that were not going to get eaten as I stupidly but the new ones in the fruit bowl next to the old ones.

I can't stand food waste, it drives me mad when anything gets thrown away here and I have to say, my youngest DD, aged 17 and a vegetarian is the worst culprit! :mad: