What can be done to reduce food waste?

[Deleted User]

Moral choices aside I think the only way to lessen food waste would be to make it as unacceptable and unpopular to the general public as smoking has become. A campaign to give Mr and Mrs Everyday brit a distaste for and social awareness of throwing away perfectly good food along the same lines as that of the anti smoking lobby might have some effect. This might even have some effect on obesity levels in the nation too should folks take on board that 'less is more' when it comes to using what you have before buying in more food.

[Deleted User]

Indeed to help the waste of food simply educate folk into buying less. No one 'needs' the amount of stuff they do, if they did we wouldn't have this problem

It seems the advent of larger and larger supermarkets urging the gullible pulblic into buying trolley loads of food that often will not get eaten because of the 'magic date on the side that will turn the consumer into a frankenstein creature if they so much as put a morsel in their mouth after midnight. Its an absurd situation. My late Mum never bought in bulk for many reasons
A. Rationing of food by the government of the time

B. Rationing of actual cash by the husband of the time (my Dad)

C. Availability of stuff in season instead of all those food miles that food travels today

D. What she bought was unable to be stored for any length of time (no fridge or freezer)

E. What was bought was cooked within a day or so.

What didn't go into the kids ended up in the dog.

I think my Mum would have found it an absolute hoot the amount of just dog or cat food there is available today.

We must have the most pampered pets in the world today.Our dog had any left overs that coulnd't be turned into another meal and a cat had the tail ends or heads from the fishmongers and that was it

Wasteage was frowned upon, and during WW2 you could actually be fined for wasting food.

Children are brought up today to think of life as a throw-away society .Basically take-away, then throw away, and that goes for not only food, but furniture,clothes,electrical items, shoes, almost everything is binned and new stuff bought.

Last night I had my four grandsons to cook for, as their parents went out for an anniversary meal.The boys had sauasges,beans and jacket spuds. Bangers were from the fridge, and spuds from the veg bag I had some left over lasange from the night before that was in the fridge. the youngest boy said 'Granny you don't have to eat that there are enough sausgaes for us all'.

I said no I am happy to eat it, as there is nothing wrong with it
.'
But I thought Mum was going to let the dog have the left overs Gran'
to which I said 'Dogs loss, my gain honey' some sausages left in the fridge for breakfast this morning now:)

By the way the lasagne wa delicious re-heated in the microwave

We are all on holiday at the moment and using up what we have in stock will save us buying extra and leaving it behind when we go home (that's definitely not going to happen on my watch :):))

But the principals the same ,use what you have before you buy any more

[Deleted User]

Perhaps if the 'High Streets' were revitalised with independent shops again the stranglehold of the supermarkets might be lessened on the British housewife but that would mean shop property prices that were affordable to buy, lots of people lived over the shop with their families and ran their own businesses or shop rental and rate prices being subsidised to the point where folks could afford to pay them and still make a decent living from the shop. I think part of the waste problem is that people nowadays do a huge weekly shop at one of the big supermarkets in good faith thinking they would cook whatever it is in the week and then life gets in the way and plans get altered and the food already in the fridge doesn't get used. High Streets with smaller shops in localities nearer to home might mean people being able to buy produce more frequently and not needing to stock up once a week so if plans changed food wouldn't then be wasted.

missbiggles1

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Perhaps if the 'High Streets' were revitalised with independent shops again the stranglehold of the supermarkets might be lessened on the British housewife but that would mean shop property prices that were affordable to buy, lots of people lived over the shop with their families and ran their own businesses or shop rental and rate prices being subsidised to the point where folks could afford to pay them and still make a decent living from the shop. I think part of the waste problem is that people nowadays do a huge weekly shop at one of the big supermarkets in good faith thinking they would cook whatever it is in the week and then life gets in the way and plans get altered and the food already in the fridge doesn't get used. High Streets with smaller shops in localities nearer to home might mean people being able to buy produce more frequently and not needing to stock up once a week so if plans changed food wouldn't then be wasted.

Most people don't live anywhere near their high streets or are ever likely to.

I dislike wasting food but the solution doesn't lie in dreaming of turning the clock back to the days of rationing or small shops because that isn't going to happen..

ViolaLass

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Moral choices aside I think the only way to lessen food waste would be to make it as unacceptable and unpopular to the general public as smoking has become. A campaign to give Mr and Mrs Everyday brit a distaste for and social awareness of throwing away perfectly good food along the same lines as that of the anti smoking lobby might have some effect.

I agree with this.

I'm not convinced that it's about being able to cook. If you live on ready meals, that doesn't have to mean you're more likely to waste. What matters is whether you care about waste in the first place.

Someone I know is a very able cook but she will throw away whatever is left at the end of a meal because she doesn't want it any more. A campaign as suggested above might have some effect.

[Deleted User]

Most people don't live near out of town developments either but that's where a lot of the large supermarkets are situated. High Street regeneration would mean most of what was needed to live on for the week would be in one place and easily obtained. Towns and cities ARE larger and more sprawling these days with outlying suburbs built distant from any amenities but many urban areas do have bus services regularly during the day usually in towards the commercial centres whereas many out of town developments rely on people having a car to get to them. I know that turning back the clock isn't a feasibility in 2016 I like NOW it's a great deal more comfortable than the past ever was and it's not 'rose tinted looking back at the past' if we can rebuild a centre to our community areas they will become communities again and that surely would be a good thing for everyone who lives in them?

missbiggles1

ViolaLass wrote: »

I agree with this.

I'm not convinced that it's about being able to cook. If you live on ready meals, that doesn't have to mean you're more likely to waste. What matters is whether you care about waste in the first place.

Someone I know is a very able cook but she will throw away whatever is left at the end of a meal because she doesn't want it any more. A campaign as suggested above might have some effect.

A cookery programme with a popular chef/cook which was dedicated to recipes using leftovers would be a good start.

usernameisvalid

missbiggles1 wrote: »

A cookery programme with a popular chef/cook which was dedicated to recipes using leftovers would be a good start.

We had one, Jamie Oliver, only posters on this board mocked it as it was showing how to use up legs of lamb and whole salmon and he dared use ingredients such as smoked paprika

missbiggles1

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Most people don't live near out of town developments either but that's where a lot of the large supermarkets are situated. High Street regeneration would mean most of what was needed to live on for the week would be in one place and easily obtained. Towns and cities ARE larger and more sprawling these days with outlying suburbs built distant from any amenities but many urban areas do have bus services regularly during the day usually in towards the commercial centres whereas many out of town developments rely on people having a car to get to them. I know that turning back the clock isn't a feasibility in 2016 I like NOW it's a great deal more comfortable than the past ever was and it's not 'rose tinted looking back at the past' if we can rebuild a centre to our community areas they will become communities again and that surely would be a good thing for everyone who lives in them?

Again apologies for being negative BUT...

People who run cars (which is most people these days) don't tend to want to leave them at home and catch a bus because they see it as expensive and wasteful and there just isn't enough parking for them to drive in and use the high street on a regular basis. Also, they don't want to carry shopping back on the bus even if they can manage to do so, much less walk home from the bus stop with it. Add these problems to the higher prices local shops need to charge and, I'm afraid, people just won't be prepared to do it.

In addition, if you're inclined to waste food then you'll do it whether you've bought it in a supermarket or in a local shop. It's mindsets that need to be changed quite as much as people's shopping habits.

missbiggles1

usernameisvalid wrote: »

We had one, Jamie Oliver, only posters on this board mocked it as it was showing how to use up legs of lamb and whole salmon and he dared use ingredients such as smoked paprika

I missed that.:o

It sounds like the "I'm more frugal than you" squad struck again!:(