What can be done to reduce food waste?

Butterfly_Brain

A lot of food waste is by the manufacturers, I know someone who used to work for one company where if there was a large catering block of cheese that had a little mould in one corner it was thrown into the bin :eek::eek::eek:
Cheese freezes well, why didn't they just create a line of frozen grated cheese? Better still it could have been sent to food banks and food kitchens :mad::mad:


The food manufacturing industry uses significant quantities of resources and its impacts include 170 Mt of CO2eq emissions (21% of the UK’s territorial emissions) and the consumption of around 70 billion m3 of water, or roughly 70% of the UK’s water footprint.

Food and drink production generates waste. We estimate there are 6.5 Mt of waste arising from manufacturing and retailing. Some 4.9 Mt arises in manufacturing and some 1.6 Mt arises in retailing. The waste comprises 4.3 Mt of food, 1.6 Mt of packaging and 0.5 Mt ‘other’ material. It is that waste that needs to be tackled first and foremost!
This is fromthe WRAP website who are working to stop food waste in manufacturing and retail. Lots more interesting details on there
http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/manufacturing-and-retail-supply-chain-waste

Not to mention the huge amount of supermarket waste (I worked at T for fifteen years and saw how much is just thrown into the compactor

Households can help by using their eyes and noses and ignoring use by/sell by dates. In fact some use by dates need to be stretched by another day at least, increase sell by dates on canned, dried and jarred goods by six months. I have eaten canned food up to a year out of date and they have been fine. The companies need to test these products and make the dates longer.

We need good old fashioned home economics classes in schools taught by people who have lived frugally, not teachers who don't have a clue. These people can show how to use up leftovers to make a meal, how to create a good basic stock cupboard, cheap meals on a budget and how to create a weekly budget.

All of this was lost in the 1980's and now we have a generation who can't cook, budget, make or repair things, which is tragic. My children have grown up on frugality and it has rubbed off on them, both are competent frugal cooks and all meals are cooked from scratch, they know how to budget, iron, sew and repair things. My God daughter has asked me to go and teach her to cook as well because she is struggling on a tight budget. So this week it is a simple Macaroni cheese and showing her how to make a white sauce and in turn how to turn it into a cheese sauce. Things that we can do with our eyes closed but the 90's generation haven't got a clue about.

All in all it is not just one group ie consumers causing the food waste (they always get the blame) it is from the manufacturing and retail sectors as well

thriftwizard

A very pernickety aside:

- for produce derived from animals (including fish and eggs) teach respect for life - none of these items is there without a life's having been taken, and to waste animal-derived food is to disrespect those lives.

In general I am in total agreement with that. But some eggs & cheeses (also an animal-derived food) are produced without lives being lost or cruelly limited. I'm thinking here of our own home-laid eggs, of some local egg-producers I know whose birds are pastured and not slaughtered when they go into the moult, and a number of small, specialist dairy producers I know personally. I know I'm lucky to live in an area where these things are produced, but if you hunt around, you may well find your own local alternatives to factory-farmed foods. But - still don't waste it!

Mojisola

thriftwizard wrote: »

In general I am in total agreement with that. But some eggs & cheeses (also an animal-derived food) are produced without lives being lost or cruelly limited. I'm thinking here of our own home-laid eggs, of some local egg-producers I know whose birds are pastured and not slaughtered when they go into the moult, and a number of small, specialist dairy producers I know personally.

Even so, the hens are unlikely to live until they die naturally.

Our backyard hens lived well into their teens but they weren't laying enough eggs after their second year to justify their existence from a financial point of view.

Grumpmum

Unlike many MSE-ers, I wasn't brought up to cook or conscious of waste/ cost. So as a young adult I was dependent on what Sarah Millican called 'oveny things'. Y'know, slide it out of a box and onto a baking tray and cook. Expensive, lots of packaging and not especially nutritious! It's something I have become interested in as I've got older and more aware of environmental issues and saving for home improvements. Maybe making people aware of the environmental cost of waste food could help. I'm veggie, mostly vegan, as a result of my research into green issues, although my boys are not. Definitely not!!

I also agree with the poster (sorry, mind like a sieve, can't remember names) who said it was also a societal issue and the poster who said respect needs to be given to the fact lives are lost to provide meat and fish. I certainly feel dreadful about binning any the boys don't eat!

It's not a simple issue, but a complex one, with many contributing factors to successfully reducing waste.

Blue_Doggy

thriftwizard wrote: »

A very pernickety aside:

In general I am in total agreement with that. But some eggs & cheeses (also an animal-derived food) are produced without lives being lost or cruelly limited. I'm thinking here of our own home-laid eggs, of some local egg-producers I know whose birds are pastured and not slaughtered when they go into the moult, and a number of small, specialist dairy producers I know personally. I know I'm lucky to live in an area where these things are produced, but if you hunt around, you may well find your own local alternatives to factory-farmed foods. But - still don't waste it!

Yes, you are quite right , small-scale egg-producers and dairies can produce without taking lives. However, for mainstream, large-scale commercial poultry flocks it's only the female chicks which are wanted - the males are slaughtered (or go into the pet-reptile food-trade) as hatchlings.

Likewise, most male calves of the dairy breeds are slaughtered at or shortly after birth (although I believe that some farmers are trying to find better ways of dealing with them (apart from live export to the continental veal trade)). I don't know what happens to male kids within the dairy goat industry, but I assume it's much the same as with calves.

The waste of new-born (or new-hatched) male life is another area of "food waste" which is seldom thought of but needs tackling. (True Vegans, take a bow!)

Grumpmum

The terrible things and waste of life that happen in meat and dairy production is why I'm transitioning to becoming fully vegan. At home it's easy and I am fully vegan, but out and at other people's houses it isn't always easy........but people are finally understanding and starting to accommodate. It's the hidden things, like egg in some qourn that is an issue.
Again, it's education that will change things. Sadly, most people are unaware of what happens in the meat and dairy industry (and many don't want to know.......)

Looking back on my previous posts I don't think I made it clear that I eat the way I do for both environmental and ethical reasons.

GreyQueen

Today I have harvested 127 kg of spuds, grown from 7.5 kg seed spuds which I planted in late March.

They were placed in repurposed paper potato sacks from farm-gate sales. Nothing was wasted; the few marbles were collected, the few with green tinges caused by breaking out of the soil and the few which had been tunnelled by slugs/ wireworm.

A handful had been spiked by the fork and these were put aside for immediate consumption as they will not keep.

I also harvested onions, some of which are as large as my fist and some of which are little better than shallot size.

One thing which is consistant amongst all gardeners I know if an utter abhorrence of waste. The irregularly-sized or comedically-shaped veggies and fruits, as well as those with minor damage, are all welcomed and valued.

Growing your own tends to shape your mind in ways which are unwasteful and pro sharing any excess with others. There needs to be a lot more of it, imo.

Mojisola

I've had discussions with a few self-righteous vegetarians (and that's not the majority of vegetarians) who declare themselves to be better than people who eat 'food that once had a face' but have been quite happy to tuck into a cheese or egg dish.

Their dairy products are only available because a cow (or some other mammal) has been pregnant. If the off-spring is a male, in most cases, it will be killed within a few days or fattened up, slaughtered and eaten - claiming superiority because they don't actually eat the animal doesn't remove the fact that the young animal wouldn't have been born and killed if they hadn't wanted to buy dairy products. Female offspring will go into the system and repeat the cycle of pregnancies and milking periods and will be sent to slaughter once their production drops off.

The egg industry is one of the most intensive areas of farming. Caged birds are being phased out here but the majority of eggs will still come from layers that last one season and then go into cheap pies and pet food - and, as someone said above, the males are disposed at hatching as unwanted.

usernameisvalid

Blue_Doggy wrote: »

Yes, you are quite right , small-scale egg-producers and dairies can produce without taking lives. However, for mainstream, large-scale commercial poultry flocks it's only the female chicks which are wanted - the males are slaughtered (or go into the pet-reptile food-trade) as hatchlings.

Likewise, most male calves of the dairy breeds are slaughtered at or shortly after birth (although I believe that some farmers are trying to find better ways of dealing with them (apart from live export to the continental veal trade)). I don't know what happens to male kids within the dairy goat industry, but I assume it's much the same as with calves.

The waste of new-born (or new-hatched) male life is another area of "food waste" which is seldom thought of but needs tackling. (True Vegans, take a bow!)

Even tiny scale producers have to take lives at some point

I have 12 laying hens

This year I got a broody who's already hatched 5 and if I let her near eggs ,mill sit again

So now I've 5 chooks. Possibly 17 hens, maybe a few roosters.

I don't need Roos. If I've got Roos they HAVE to go in the pot.

If I allow broody hens fertile eggs, someone is going to have to die. I don't have finite land to allow them the happy free range life they lead.

Mind I could just pack em in, let them peck each other to death if I don't do the dispatching

ViolaLass

I think we've moved somewhat from the original issue.

The number one type of food that homes waste is apparently fruit and veg. Is getting sanctimonious* about the state of the meat and dairy industries going to make much difference to that?

*I thought carefully about whether to use that word but it is the direction some posts are going in.