What can be done to reduce food waste?

UKParliament

Hi Everyone,

What would help you reduce food waste? What do you do already that you think works well?

Share your thoughts and experiences and help inform the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's inquiry into food waste. Your comments will be used by the Committee to inform their questions to witnesses and their final report. We'll share that with you here when it's published.

Please add your comments to this thread by 13 September 2016 in order to be shared with the Committee. If you have any questions let us know and we'll try and help.

If you would like to take part in this inquiry but don't want to share your comments publicly, please visit the Committee's webpage to submit your thoughts.

Further questions

The Committee would also be interested in hearing you thoughts on the following:

• What is the economic, environmental and social impact of food waste in England?
• What measures could be most effective in reducing food waste by retailers, the hospitality sector, local government, and consumers? These can include redistribution, recycling and recovery, and improved packaging and labelling.
• How effective are existing voluntary initiatives in England and is there a need for legislation?
• What are the comparative approaches to reducing and managing food waste in the devolved nations, and across Europe?

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Tipsntreats

I find that there is an awful lot of food wasted in the care homes that I have to visit. I am unsure how this situation could be rectified.

Islandmaid

Start teaching kids Home Economics in schools, how to budget, shop, cook actual meals not just cheese straws, and that food does not explode the moment it reaches its sell by date.

My 20 yo DD phone to ask if it would be okay to cook some chicken breast as the use by date was that days - I obviously failed to get through to her previously :mad: sniff it girl :rotfl:

Edit: ban BOGOF,s too - tell supermarkets we want cheaper basics - not 20 packs of biscuits for £1 or 2 massive bags of salad for the price of 1, of which most will end up in the bin... Also CHARGE MANUFACTURERS/FAST FOOD RETAILERS additional tax on the packaging they BUY, it may force them to reduce packaging - why are bananas put in plastic bags - they come in their own wrappers! For example.

SailorSam

I don't know if there's much more that you can do to get through to people. The number of programmes we've had on the Tv, and stories in the press and still people don't listen.
It's like the smoker who says it will never happen to him, or the person who still believes global warning is made up.
Obviously consumers aren't listening. So pressure should be put onto the Producers and big retailers to cut their waste.

Floss

Force companies & manufacturers to reduce packaging waste.

Force retailers to sell only loose items, then shoppers can buy what they need rather than excess which may get wasted.

Bring in proper food waste collections, not just general waste. My council has just stopped their fortnightly green & food waste collection and started a subscription-only garden waste collection for 6 months of the year. That is of no use to most residents who live in flats or terraced homes with no garden.

Bring back Home Economics in schools - cookery, diet, shopping & storing food... all the things my generation were taught but kids aren't these days.

[Deleted User]

Educate people to use up what they have before binning it .Far too much is binned because it may be a day over it use by date I grew up without dates on food and I amnow in my seventies and healthy as a horse, unless it smells to high heaven half an hour past midnight won't turn you into a frog forggodness sake .
Often I think these bogoff things encourage people to buy stuff, then realise it maybe a day over, and its chucked in the bin !!!

Go live in a third world country and see how precious food is then perhaps less may be thrown away

Big supermarkets just want to sell stuff, they aren't bothered whether folk will actually eat it, as they figure that the 'magic' date stamp has brainwashed folk into binning perfectly good and edible food.

Grow up as I did with rationing and a Mum who streetched food to breaking point.Basically if it didn't 'walk off' the plate it was eaten and what didn't go in the kids ended up in the dog :):)

Nothing ever gets wasted in my house as to me throwing food away is an obscenity

Here Here Floss I heartily agree with you

JackieO

SailorSam

Floss wrote: »

Force retailers to sell only loose items, then shoppers can buy what they need rather than excess which may get wasted.

started a subscription-only garden waste collection for 6 months of the year. That is of no use to most residents who live in flats or terraced homes with no garden.
.

On your first point Floss how much waste is encouraged by supermarkets selling ........... Buy one Get one free.
Your second point. I live alone and recycle everything i can. Most weeks i have about a carrier bag full of rubbish, my bin only needs putting out every few months. But i've got a big garden and even though i compost the 'grass' bin is always overflowing. I get annoyed when i read in the papers that Councils are thinking of charging extra to take away 'green' waste while my normal waste bin is empty............ What do i start doing, put clippings in there and send it to landfill ?

kathrynha

Short term I think it is hard, because we have a large group of adults (school leavers to those that don't remember rationing) that, unless they were taught by their parents/Guides/Scouts/etc, don't know how to cook, budget, store food, etc. Then add to that the fact that most adults that work have limited time and energy to cook. This group is very difficult to get them to reduce waste, as there is lots of info going out to that group already that isn't being heeded.
Cooking classes for those that are interested would help, but that comes down to time and money.


It is the future that needs looking at. Education is key. Proper home economics and household management taught to all at school.
The lessons needs to cover all the basics. Teaching making cheap and nutritious meals. Teaching how to make a food budget stretch. Teaching quick meals that can be produced in less time than a ready made pizza. Teaching how to work out quantities and portion size. Teaching about batch cooking and freezing. Teaching how to store food to make it last as long as possible.

moneyistooshorttomention

1. Educating people about the concept of "working the other way round" when it comes to preparing meals for themselves. Instead of "see recipe/work out what food items to buy for it" - then have them "see what food items they have and decide what to make from them".

I was given a copy of the book "Eat Well, Waste Less - an A-Z guide to using up leftovers" by Bish Muir that is based on that concept. I believe it was my, then, County Council that was giving them out and hence where I got my free copy from.

2. https://www.facebook.com/olioex/

is the Facebook group re Olio.

The only shame is many of us can't access Olio - as it's an app on a mobile phone and many of us only have basic style mobile phones and can't access apps. It would be useful if there was something similar to this scheme that could be accessed via computer (as many more of us have computers than have "fancy" type mobile phones). It would also be useful if there were a similar scheme to this for those that don't even have computers.

3. It would certainly be handy for those keen gardeners/allotmenteers that find themselves producing surplus produce to have a readily accessible way of giving away the surplus. Obviously, we look to give surplus to friends and relatives first. A few people (very few!) put it outside their front gate inviting passersby to help themselves. That still leaves a lot of produce "going spare" for redistribution.

4. This initiative needs to be nationwide. Is it nationwide - or just in England?

Tipsntreats

kathrynha The word frugal is not even understood, these days.

moneyistooshorttomention

Further thought:

- Couldnt communal type kitchens (eg school kitchens? some church halls have decent size kitchens?) be advertised as running a free session or two for learning to cook in a waste-saving way?

Waste food could be collected from whoever-wishes-to-donate (eg supermarkets being the basic suppliers) and put in this kitchen. A suitable person/people there instructing anyone attending the course (which would be free obviously). The course to consist of showing people how to think up/prepare food from the random ingredients and they all share lunch from what they have produced part way through the day and then take home the rest of the food they personally have made with them for dinner (and take any leftover ingredients they wish to as well).

That would be my basic idea for a course.

But there could be a second course specifically on food preserving - bottling, low-cost ways of drying food, etc.