How much do you chuck away?

MacMickster

PasturesNew wrote: »

24 stone is (24x14 pounds) = 336 lbs.
It's the weight of two "average" people really.... not two skinnies and not two chubbies. Or, for those that prefer, if you assume that babies are born weighing 7lbs then it's like throwing out the weight of a new baby every week without fail.

If those two "average" people each ate an extra 24 stone of food each year then I suspect that they wouldn't stay average for very long.

I do wonder if a substantial part of our food waste as a nation is due to supermarket offers and packaging. BOGOF when you really only want one, or the prices of larger sizes items reduced to less than the smaller counterpart that you were looking for. Also all of the prepacked fresh foods in standard amounts rather than going to a counter and asking for the amount that you actually want.

CLAPTON

what does waste mean

potato peeling?
orange peel?
other layers of spring onions?
topping and tailing veg?

remorseless

CLAPTON wrote: »

what does waste mean

potato peeling?
orange peel?
other layers of spring onions?
topping and tailing veg?

nooo apparently is food purchased and thrown away cause it goes off...


so throwing away almost 1/2 the veggies purchased, etc

I suppose if we were all more diligent, it would bite on the grocery stores selling less?

marleyboy

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

We freeze our breads and only take out whats needed.
It doesn't take long for bread to defrost.

When we were kids my Mother would. but I find it spoils the bread and makes it too dry or crispy when toasting.

globalds

I read a while ago the the amount of foods the west wasted and the amount the old soviets wasted was about the same ...It just happened at different ends of the chain.

We get it all to market , our systems allow for extra resources to be allocated for bumper harvests and haulage and warehousing is integrated with the demands of the market, so it mostly gets to it's point of sale if it gets grown .

The Soviets with a centralised system tended to lose all there's out in the fields or stuck in some backwater waiting ,because only three carriages turned up for eight carriages worth of cabbages.

This is not trying to justify our waste ..But just offering a comparison ..seems to an extent waste is hard to make go away.

Norman_Castle

I throw out possibly one meal every two years simply because its inedible. I eat everything I buy and always clear my plate. I've just started on a strawberry trifle which a friend gave me as her grand kids wouldn't eat it and it was heading for the bin. I've never bought or accepted strawberries before when offered because I really don't like them but I can't throw these away. :rotfl:. (How to ruin a good trifle. Put fruit in it)

I've got a few friends who will open the fridge and empty most of its contents into the bin!.

The_Last_Username

Very VERY little food gets thrown away in this household.

Reading the "What we waste" table shown above and regarding the way in which (the majority of) fruit and vegetables are purchased nowadays, that so much IS wasted is not a surprise.
All potatoes pre-washed; veg. in pre-weighed packs; fruit in (usually large) multi-packs etc.

Here though we have (firstly) a son who - as he gets older - seems to eat for England!
And secondly a dog! Which seems to eat ANYTHING ....... and never EVER suffers any ill-effects ............. well, discounting flatulence.
Result = no food usually even reaches the "best before" or "use by" date. :rotfl:

cells

A lot of whats thrown away is water not food

for example it says a high portion of potatoes are thrown away. Well potatoes are 80% water. Whereas something like biscuits or chocolate are closer to zero water

I've thrown lots of milk away in my lifetime but again its 90% water

on a calorific basis I suspect we throw away a lot less than on a weight basis might suggest

cells

Food is just another form of human labor it shouldn't be seen as extra special.

The fatter members of the species need to throw more food away. If you are full throw it away dont force feed yourself

kaneap

I hate throwing food away but the supermarkets don't make it easy - a number of times we've bought fresh food in a hurry, gone to eat the next day and find that it's past its use by date - and we didn't even buy it from the reduced section! I think they exploit busy people, and sometimes its really hard to spot the use by dates anyway.